


green window

by sauveznous



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Crimes & Criminals, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-23 23:18:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 76,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8346712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sauveznous/pseuds/sauveznous
Summary: All Minatozaki Sana wanted was a confession from the alleged homicide culprit, Myoui Mina, but there was more into it than what was seen on the surface.





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> It's my very first work here and I'm actually not a law student and all, so the information might be inaccurate. To make it easier, all the characters here are Korean citizen.

“Come on,”

Another whine, another hiss as a response.

Minatozaki Sana really didn’t want her rare, precious Friday night to be wasted once again in the office. She almost never had a chance to go home and sleep on Friday nights, so she wouldn’t just willingly say yes to this annoying colleague, Jackson Wang, asking her to finish _one more job_ before she could go home.

Working overnight was nothing new to her, but being able to go home _that_ early, she checked the time, it was a little past 11PM, was too good to waste. She could always work the next day, anyway. There was no new urgent case or situation and everything was under control. So she didn’t understand why Jackson insisted her to do that one more job, whatever it was. She simply said no before he could explain.

“Sana,” He tried again, sitting on her desk, blocking Sana who was trying to reach her purse, “I really need you to do it.”

“You said yourself that this is your case, why don’t _you_ do it?”

“I can’t. Chief wants me to go to Busan with him tonight for that dead body case.”

“Well then, continue working on it after you go back from Busan or something.”

“Can’t, it has to be done tonight.”

Sana groaned, “Then, do it yourself!”

“I already said I can’t!” He held both her shoulders to prevent her from moving around, “Remember that murder case five months ago? It’s that case. I just need you to do something simple about that.”

Sana narrowed her eyes. There were too many murder cases.

“Which one? I can’t remember yours.”

“A middle-aged man found dead in his house. His stepdaughter is the only one to be blamed. Come on, you can’t forget that. It was pretty huge.”

Sana almost rolled her eyes because she actually remembered it despite not being her case to handle, “Are you asking me to do that _something simple_ about that case because the girl is basically Japanese?”

“She’s actually a Korean citizen but has a Japanese name and blood like you, so yeah, partly because of that.”

A sigh as Sana let go of his grip, “You’re unbelievable. That reason isn’t relevant.”

He tugged her arm, “Oh come on--”

“You know what, Momo is also a Japanese-Korean citizen.”

“Momo is probably already drooling on her desk right now.”

“And that’s what I should’ve done on my bed if you weren’t such a bother like this! I have like, five unfinished cases to think about!”

“Momo has seven.” He frowned, “And I’m going to have seven too, adding this Busan dead body case to the list. You only have five. One of those is almost finished too, only one or two trials left. You’re the least busy among us right now.”

“But mine are heavy.”

“I’m not asking you to take over my case, no! It’s just a simple thing. One simple thing you need to do just for tonight. The case is still mine. It’s just… I already planned this but suddenly that Busan case happened and all…”

Sana crossed her arms.

“Please? It’s just for tonight. If in the end it doesn’t work, then it’s okay. At least you’ve tried. It would still relieve me more than not trying at all.”

“Why--”

“I’ll buy you meals! Right after I come back from Busan, I’ll treat you! You like meat, right? Or pork? Or both?”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll do it. But it better be easy or I’ll drop it in like, five minutes after I start.”

“Yeah! Thank you!” He surged forward and hugged, or more like, suffocated her, “You’re my savior!”

Sana could only roll her eyes once more. What a night.

-

“Here,”

Jackson handed her some papers, documents regarding the murder case. It was a pretty easy case, actually. A man found dead, all the evidences pointed to one person, who later was known as his stepdaughter. The girl, despite being a Korean citizen, had a Japanese name, so it kind of confused Sana because she thought Korean citizens with Japanese names were only her and Hirai Momo, her colleague. They had Japanese blood in them and were named that way by their parents. They also had relatives in Japan and visited there a few times.

_Myoui Mina_ , she read the name.

_Pretty._

“She looks young.”

“She is.” Jackson nodded, “Nineteen but a second grade in high school. She’s the stepdaughter of the victim. They only lived with each other, that typical middle class family. I heard that she was actually adopted, but I don’t know the details because there's so little information about that plus she’s really, like really, hard to communicate with so… you’ll find out why.”

Sana flipped the papers, “Okay, and what exactly do you want me to do?”

“It’s umm…” He sat down on his desk, “can you… try to make her confess of murdering her stepfather?”

“What?” Sana looked up from the papers, “She hasn’t?”

“She keeps saying she didn’t. But when she was asked who the culprit really was, she couldn’t answer. And all the evidences are pointing at her. But she still hasn’t confessed.”

“Well, she can say no as much as she wants. What’s the problem?”

“Her first trial is tomorrow.” He bit his lip, “I just… want the sentence to be… as it should be. But you know it would be heavier if she insisted not confessing. She’s too young. She can’t be staying behind bars for that long. She has no family either…”

Sana whistled, “I always knew you’re a softie.”

He pursed his lips, “So, please? Can you get a confession before tomorrow? It would reduce her sentence. It’s… the least I can do for her.”

“Okay. So I guess I’ll have to interrogate this girl one more time to get her confession literally because of this softie right here.” She tapped his head slowly, “You better get that money ready because you know how much I eat.”

“Sure do! Meat and pork for you!”

Jackson soon left with the Chief and other team members to Busan. It was pretty urgent because Sana heard the victim was a dude with a name there, whoever he was. She had to sigh when she walked through where Momo’s desk was and saw that Momo really was already drooling all over her desk. She remembered that Momo had seven cases, though. She knew Momo must be tired.

There were two separate rooms in that section, the one where police officers watched, and the one where they interrogated the culprits. Sana knocked the door to where a young detective Choi Youngjae was staying inside, and he bowed when Sana came in.

“You know Jackson told me to do this, right?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.” Youngjae nodded with a grin, “I’m glad you agree, though.”

“Hmm.” She just told herself to keep imagining meat and pork, “Wait, why didn’t you go with him to Busan? You’re like his partner for life.”

“No, he told me to watch over the girl. He wanted to make sure I record everything when she makes her confession.”

“Okay.” Sana then turned to the glass window, where she could see the girl, but the girl couldn’t, “So, this is Myoui Mina.”

The girl, Myoui Mina, was sitting inside the interrogation room quietly. Both hands were on the table, cuffed. Legs tangled to one another. Breaths were regular. Eyes were rather droopy. She looked relaxed.

“Do you think this will take long?” Sana asked Youngjae.

Youngjae just awkwardly nodded.

“Yeah, of course. She’s been saying no all this time, how can I make her say yes in a night.” Sana mumbled, “Anyways, I’ll go inside now. You, watch closely.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Bringing some needed papers, Sana found herself in front of the interrogation room, and after she knocked twice, she opened the door and came inside.

-

Myoui Mina didn’t look so stunned seeing a new detective suddenly came, instead of Jackson Wang. But there was a kind of unfamiliar stare in her eyes. Sana could tell when Myoui Mina stared at her for a good one second when she walked inside.

Sana sat down on the chair across Myoui Mina and put the papers there, in an order where she could understand better. Myoui Mina just kept silent, eyes on the desk, her fingers intertwining to one another. The metal cuffs made that annoying sound every time Myoui Mina moved her hands but Sana tried to bear with it.

It was just for a night.

“Detective Wang has to go to Busan so he told me to talk to you for some time. Is that okay?” She asked, but Myoui Mina didn’t answer, “My name’s Minatozaki Sana.”

And it did in making Myoui Mina lift her head to face Sana. It was most likely because of the Japanese name.

“I promise you this won’t take long if you just go with what I say. When we’re finished you can go back and have some rest. It’s up to you if you want this to end quick or not.”

Myoui Mina’s eyes traveled down to the desk again. Sana ignored it.

“So, your name is Myoui Mina, nineteen years old, and you’re here because of the accusation of murdering Han Sungwoon, your stepfather.” She started, reading the words in the papers, “It happened five months ago in your house in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. And according to the investigation, all of the evidences pointed at you, making you the alleged culprit in this case. Is that true?”

Myoui Mina didn’t answer.

Sana mentally sighed. This definitely would take time.

“Myoui Mina,” She called, and the girl looked up hesitantly, “did you, or did you not, murder Han Sungwoon, your stepfather?”

And the answer was said so easily, “No, I didn’t kill him.”

It made Sana frown. Deeply. Not just because she said no, but also because how she spoke.

Myoui Mina talked to her _informally_. She didn’t use a formal language, but instead a very casual one which usually was used in talking with close friends. Sana might’ve had experiences in dealing with criminals, but it was one of the rare times someone spoke to her in that way. And it really irritated her. She wondered how Jackson dealt with this.

“Okay, you said no, but the evidences are clear.” Sana tried to shrug it off and went back to the papers, “In the morning you were in school, a witness confirmed that. At the same time Han Sungwoon was at his office, there were also witnesses. Both of you were home since approximately nine PM and none of you stepped out of the house until the next morning came. And by then, your stepfather was already dead, and you were the only one who was with him the whole night.”

Myoui Mina just quietly listened.

“You were in the crime scene when the police arrived. The knife that was used to stab Han Sungwoon only has your fingerprints on it. The blood all over your hands that time was confirmed to be his. There was no sign of robbery, or marauding. You have literally no alibi. So tell me, why do you keep saying that you didn’t kill him?”

“Because I didn’t.” A shrug, “Why would I say I did, when I never did?”

Sana almost gritted her teeth at the girl’s language. Her tone was annoying too. She jerked her head to the glass window, or a mirror in her point of view so she could only see her reflection, but was sure Youngjae could see how annoyed she was.

“It doesn’t work like that.” Sana started again, “You can deny as much as you want, but there has to be evidences backing that up, or at least an alibi. You have none. Even your lawyer wants you to confess because that’s the only way for your sentence to be reduced. You murdered him, you get a punishment. It’s simple.”

Myoui Mina frowned at her, “But I really didn’t kill that bastard.”

Sana scoffed, she couldn’t stand it anymore, “Do you always talk like that? I mean, I’m much older than you but you don’t even use a formal language--”

“I don’t know how.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how.”

“You don’t know how to speak formally?”

“Yes.”

_Wait, what?_

Sana leaned her back and frowned at the girl who had her head down after she said she didn’t know how to speak formally. Weird. That didn’t make sense. Was that just another lie she muttered? But why would she lie about not being able to speak formally? It was just for the sake of common courtesy, it had nothing to do with the case.

“How so?”

Myoui Mina rubbed her palms to one another, the metal cuffs making those sounds again, “I never use it.”

Sana frowned even more.

_Who in the world never uses a formal language when talking to others?_

“Okay, okay.” The language wasn’t the main problem so Sana wanted to let it pass, “But you’re… you have a Japanese name, though. Are you Japanese, somehow?”

“I… maybe…”

“Can you speak Japanese?” She randomly asked, in Japanese.

“Yes, I can.”

Sana was startled once more. Myoui Mina spoke smooth Japanese, in a more proper way than her informal Korean.

“You can speak Japanese?” She repeated, in Japanese.

And Myoui Mina answered again in a polite Japanese, “Yes, Detective.”

Sana crossed her arms as she stared at the girl across her. She couldn’t speak formal Korean, but was able to use the proper and polite Japanese when talking to her. That meant she might have used more Japanese than Korean in communicating with people. But the question was, with whom? She only lived with her stepfather, and he was Korean.

“Is speaking in Japanese more comfortable for you than in Korean?”

She hesitantly nodded, “Yes.”

“Do you speak to your stepfather in Japanese?”

“No. He can’t.”

Sana’s confusion got worse. She was close to ask _why_ but decided to save it for later.

“Okay, umm…” She surged her seat forward a little, “Since it’s easier for you then we’ll talk in Japanese.”

Myoui Mina just nodded.

“It says that you only live with your stepfather in Gangbuk-gu and he worked as a part-timer in an oil shop. He mostly had morning to noon shift and came home by afternoon. And you, Myoui Mina, go to the nearest high school from morning until afternoon and you have no other activities beside that. Am I right?” Sana read the papers.

“Yes.”

“So you mostly spent times in your house with your stepfather. Were you close with him?”

“No.”

“You weren’t?”

“I wasn’t.” Myoui Mina shook her head, “He rarely came home.”

Sana then read the papers more carefully. It didn’t say anything about the relationship between Myoui Mina and Han Sungwoon which was a huge flaw because it should’ve been looked deeper to find the impulse of the murder. It was possible that the investigation didn’t go through that far and it really bothered her. There was a reason why she was chosen to handle heavier homicide cases. Because she really took the investigation process seriously and tried as much as she could not to miss anything.

Jackson only said, and it was stated in the papers too, that it was difficult to dig more information because Myoui Mina was difficult to communicate with and she had no family either so the source was only her. Sana understood that, Myoui Mina had limited Korean. But did Jackson even know that the girl spoke way better Japanese and actually was easier to talk to in that?

There was more to the case than she thought. Sana couldn’t shake off the curiosity boiling in her. She needed to find out more. The thoughts of sleeping on her bed this Friday night was nowhere in her head. And she no longer wanted to hear the girl confessing her crime. She needed to find out more.

“Okay, I think that’s it. I’ll be seeing you more from now on. You can go and get some rest.” She turned to the mirror and spoke to Youngjae in Korean, “Youngjae, I’m done. Get Myoui Mina back to her place.”

She quickly gathered the papers and stood up. She looked at her watch on her left wrist, it was fifteen minutes past 1AM. It means she still had some time before morning. She glanced at Myoui Mina one last time and saw that the girl had that confused expression while staring up at her. She ignored it.

Youngjae ran to her after she left the room, “Sunbaenim! Did she confess to you in Japanese? If she didn’t, we should try again! We still have some time!”

“No, she didn’t, and I won’t make her confess tonight, be it in Japanese or Korean. You get her back and tell Jackson to come back in the morning because I need to talk about Myoui Mina’s case.”

“But--”

Sana glared at him, “Do it. It’s an order.”

Youngjae just sighed, “Yes, Sunbaenim. I’ll do it.”

-

_The prosecutor was found dead in his parents’ house in Busan…_

It was almost half past 8AM. Jackson hadn’t arrived.

“You should’ve told me you weren’t going home last night.” Momo said, a bit muffled because she was brushing her teeth sloppily, a glass of water in her hand, “We could’ve had dinner together.”

“Can’t, we’re both busy.”

She didn’t even get a time to eat. Her stomach grumbled as she sniffed the smell of the ramen cup Momo gave her. Her desk was no longer organized as she let the papers scattered all over it, too lazy to put it in order.

“You really look like you are.” Momo wiped her mouth after she had rinsed, “Another new case? I didn’t hear anything, though.”

“No, it’s…” Sana gulped the ramen, she was eating so quickly, “Jackson’s case.”

“Jackson’s case? Why are you working on his? Taking over?”

“I really don’t want to but it’s… I don’t know, I just think he didn’t investigate enough.”

Momo bent down grasping one paper and read it, a picture of the victim was shown, “A murder in Gangbuk-gu… Han Sungwoon, forty-seven years old found dead due to huge blood loss… several stab wounds…”

It took Sana less than ten minutes to finish her ramen. She threw the empty cup into the nearest trash can and checked the time. Jackson needed to get there quick, before her drowsiness could get to her because she literally didn’t sleep a blink the night before.

“Have you ever wondered why kids like this are murderers?” Momo asked, sitting down across Sana, pointing at Myoui Mina’s picture.

Sana rubbed her neck tiredly, “It’s different with each individuals.”

“I know, they have their own motives. What I’ve always wondered is; were they born monsters or were they raised to be monsters?”

Sana just looked at her questioningly.

“They’re not the same.” Momo shrugged, “But I guess people would always assume the first one. Criminals are despicable, for sure. It’s just sometimes we just have to look deeper into it and find out why they do such things. Not for justifying their actions, just for the sake of it making some sense to us.”

Sana listened quietly. It left her spacing out for a moment. Momo noticed and chuckled.

“I need to go back to work.” Momo stood up and patted Sana’s head, “Work hard, Minatozaki.”

“Yeah, you too. And thanks for the ramen.”

Momo nodded as she left Sana’s cube to go back to hers. Again, Sana looked at the time. Fifteen minutes to 9AM. She waited impatiently, while tapping her fingers onto the desk. She spent the rest of the night researching about Myoui Mina’s case. She also asked Youngjae if he had more documents and he gave her some, but it was still not enough.

Sana became sure Jackson didn’t investigate enough. Well, he wasn’t a lazy detective, in fact he was pretty smart, but sometimes the cases he handled were seen _not important_ by people above them, so Sana guessed that’s why the investigation was roughly done, or even cut short. His cases weren’t like Sana’s, where important people were involved. In his case, the solving was way easier.

“Minatozaki Sana--”

“Finally!” Sana stood up instantly seeing Jackson was finally there. She quickly gathered all the papers in her hands, “I’ve been waiting. Let’s talk.”

Before Jackson could say more, she already walked away and he had to follow her. She brought him inside the small meeting room that was luckily empty. Both of them sat down across each other and Sana was already busy arranging the papers on the table.

“Sana, really,” Jackson took off his cap, “I was in Busan for like… an hour when Youngjae called and said you wanted me to go back like, this morning. I literally had to beg Chief and he told me to take KTX instead of--”

“It’s about Myoui Mina.”

“Yeah, I know. I also know that you didn’t make her confess.”

“I didn’t.”

Jackson sighed, “Sana, she has to--”

“How far did you investigate?”

“Huh?”

“How far did you investigate this case?” Sana repeated, more seriously, “You didn’t go that far, did you?”

“I… I just went through the obvious and gathered the evidences, did an area scanning, and all. It was the standard investigation method.”

Sana frowned.

“What? It wasn’t like I did nothing and just blamed the girl. She really was the only alleged culprit, there was no one else.”

“Did you seek information about her relationship with her stepfather?”

“I know they weren’t close to each other.”

“And why is that? Isn’t it fishy? They only lived with each other and yet they weren’t close? Does that even make sense?”

“Well, that happens in some family--”

“Jackson, that’s like one of the key to find out what her motive is and you didn’t even bother to look into it?”

“It’s Chief’s order, okay?” Jackson sighed, again, “He told me to just finish it quick and get her to trial because we were going nowhere and she wasn’t even close to cooperate with us. She’s also… rather poor and doesn’t have enough money to pay the lawyer so she basically has no one and nothing to shield her. We have enough evidences and we already made an agreement with the lawyer and prosecutors that her confession could help her sentence to be reduced shorter.”

“How about Myoui Mina herself? What facts about her that could be a backup evidence of her doing the crime?”

“I went to her house and asked some neighbors, they said she didn’t socialize much and hid herself a lot. I also went to her school, asked some of her schoolmates, they all said Myoui Mina was some kind of a bully. Isn’t that enough of a proof that she was capable of murdering people?”

Sana scoffed. She pushed one paper on the table to Jackson, “This high school where she goes, the one nearest to her house in Gangbuk-gu, is basically famous for its students being delinquents. If she’s a bully there, she’s just one of them. Don’t tell me you don’t know about this school’s reputation.”

Jackson just kept mum.

“If you know, why don’t you look further?”

“Sana, if it weren’t for Chief…” Jackson looked at her, “you know how he is. If he said stop, we’d have to stop. I was getting fed up too at how this girl acts. She even talks like a sailor…”

“Oh, yeah, I know how she talks,” Sana smirked, “in Korean. But do you even know that she speaks Japanese?”

Jackson frowned, “She does?”

“Yeah, and guess what, her Japanese is pretty much polite. It’s far from her blabbering Korean. You also didn’t look further at her Japanese name, huh?”

Jackson sighed once more and brought a hand to his forehead, rubbing it slowly. Sana understood, though. Just like what she had guessed, it was the Chief’s order. Something she really didn’t like about him, his views about _important_ and _unimportant_ cases. Sana didn’t think that way. For her, every homicide case was important no matter how unknown or _irrelevant_ the culprit and victim were.

“I talked to her in Japanese. It was obvious she was more comfortable using it. She was easier to communicate with. She also told me she used informal language in Korean because she didn’t know how to speak formally, because she never used it. It makes sense to me, somehow. If you never use a language in daily basis, you won’t be able to convey it. You understand but you can’t convey.”

Sana pointed at the picture of the school again,

“Seeing where she goes to school, with those delinquents as her friends, there’s no way she speaks formally there. It’s most likely she throws curses here and there. She also doesn’t hesitate in using strong language in front of me. Meanwhile, beside the school,” Her finger moved to another paper, a picture of the house, “she spends more time in her house and she might’ve communicated with her stepfather using informal language too. Which is weird.”

Jackson nodded his head, “In Japanese too, maybe?”

“No. She told me her dad couldn’t speak Japanese. And it’s weird too, seeing how fluent she talked in Japanese. It feels like she uses it more than Korean, but with whom?” Sana pushed another paper closer to Jackson, “I couldn’t find her biological parents so let’s just go with her foster parents, assuming she was adopted. Her mother, Han Sungwoon’s wife, Shin Hyemi, was Korean but she worked in Japan for quite long, about five years or so. I assume she was also fluent in Japanese because of that. And she communicated with Myoui Mina in Japanese. But the thing is, she already passed away six years ago.”

“I know. It was a car accident. She said so herself.”

“Isn’t it fishy for you?” Sana crossed her arms, “If a daughter isn’t close with her father, let alone a stepfather, she will use an extreme formal language when talking to him. But Myoui Mina doesn’t even know how.”

“Yeah, it’s weird, I get it, but what are you trying to say? The evidences are clear. She murdered Han Sungwoon--”

“I’m not saying she didn’t. It’s most likely she did. She isn’t close with her stepfather, goes to a school of delinquents, talks informally, it’s obvious what kind of a teenager she is. What I’m trying to do is to find out what made her like that, and it eventually will lead to her exact motivation so that we can get that confession of her murdering Han Sungwoon.”

Jackson looked skeptical, “Just that?”

“What do you mean, ‘just that’? It’s what you should’ve done if you wanted to hear her confession so much.”

A grin, “It looks like it’s my fault for dragging you to this case.”

She hissed, “What exactly can you do right, really…”

But his grin erased instantly when he remembered, “It’s her first trial today.”

“Postpone it.” Sana waved her hand once, “I’ll talk to Chief. Also, I need to meet her lawyer to discuss about this.”

Jackson had his mouth hung open when Sana stood up, “You’re taking over this case?”

“No, I’m just being kind to _help_ you finish this properly. Ditch that Busan dead body one. You’re working with me until Myoui Mina confesses and gets punished for the crime she did, not more.”

With that she left the room, and she didn’t miss Jackson’s loud, _and you said I was a softie,_ before she closed the door behind her. Yeah, right. She really thought Jackson was the softie one in this.

-

“Are we going to do a re-investigation?”

Youngjae, the most clueless one, asked Jackson and Sana, his seniors. The three of them were on their way to the crime scene, Myoui Mina’s house in Gangbuk-gu. Jackson was driving and Sana was sitting on the passenger seat, leaving Youngjae on the backseat with batches of documents both on his left and right sides.

Sana made a face at the question, “No, we’re going to re-enact the scene with you as the victim.”

Youngjae grinned, he already understood Sana’s answers, “How did you get Chief to say yes, Sunbaenim?”

“Chief never says no to Minatozaki Sana.” Jackson patted Sana’s head and the latter slapped his hand away playfully, “Something I have yet to achieve.”

“You were with Jackson all the time during the past investigation, weren’t you?” Sana asked and Youngjae nodded, “Do you bring your notes with you?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim! I do!”

“Good. You’re going to have to take a lot more notes this time.”

Unlike most people who lived in apartments, Myoui Mina and the late Han Sungwoon lived in a small house in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. It was rather desolated and there weren’t enough neighbors as sources, and none of them witnessed the murder, one of the reasons why Jackson decided to cut the investigation short.

Sana observed the house first when they arrived. There was literally no passerby, and the nearest neighbor was approximately fifteen meters away. People wouldn’t dare to go closer because of the yellow police line surrounding the whole house. Sana sighed. Secluded area wasn’t really her favorite.

“I tracked the past owners of this house, if any.” Jackson said, when the three of them had stepped inside the small house, “Before Han Sungwoon, the house went by the name Jin Taewoo, which was Han Sungwoon’s uncle, from his mother’s side. I tracked further and all of the past owners are related to each other, so I guess this house is kind of… hereditary or something.”

Sana nodded her head, eyeing the crime scene, the kitchen, “Is this where the murder happened?”

“Most likely. He was found dead here, but his blood reached the living room so we assumed they had a fight there too, but you know we can’t prove it since there was no witness and Myoui Mina kept saying _no, I didn’t kill that bastard_.”

Sana chuckled at the word and at how Jackson imitated the girl’s voice, “She said bastard in front of me too. You know it’s a hint that she hates Han Sungwoon, right?”

“Yeah, at first we supposed that she was being abused.” Jackson crossed his arms, “But we found no physical injury or trauma in Myoui Mina. If Han Sungwoon was abusive, he would’ve hit Myoui Mina probably almost every day, or constantly at least, so if there was nothing wrong in Myoui Mina’s physical condition, we assumed he wasn’t abusive.”

“Okay. Now let’s spread. You, Han Sungwoon’s room. Youngjae, check the bathroom. I’ll go to Myoui Mina’s bedroom. Try to find some more stuff that could lead us further. Whatever it is.”

Myoui Mina’s room was way smaller than Han Sungwoon’s. Sana assumed it’s because Han Sungwoon used to share the room with his late wife, Shin Hyemi. There were a small single bed, an old wooden closet, and a rickety wooden desk that made noises every time Sana touched it. Seeing the books on it, Sana assumed it was where Myoui Mina studied.

She started rummaging through the room. She opened the closet, threw all of the clothes away after examining it one by one to find any suspicious object, and then roamed her hands all over the closet. There was none. She moved to the bed, threw the pillow away, there was nothing she found. Then she lied flat on the floor with a flashlight, trying to find something under the bed. There was also nothing.

She moved to the desk. She opened each and every book. Myoui Mina only had one notebook, where she wrote down notes from what she learned in school. Other than that were textbooks from the school, and she found no written texts from Myoui Mina. The girl probably didn’t study much.

Sighing, Sana stopped what she was doing and wiped her sweat. She realized how hot it was. The room was too small, with no air conditioner, and there wasn’t enough lighting too. On the wall above the desk, she saw a small window covered with a curtain, so she reached it to uncover the window to have more lighting.

Something fell into her hand instead.

Sana was startled for a split second. It was a piece of paper fell from the window.

She looked up anxiously. The window was a head above her so she had to tiptoe. It was small, probably only a head could be seen through it, and so dirty, there was a shade of green on its edges. Her hand reached to find more objects, but she ended up pushing the window open. It wasn’t locked.

She went back to the piece of paper. It was folded messily and she unfolded it in a hurry.

_Are you okay? – your friend._

Sana frowned.

A handwriting. The ‘are you okay?’ was written in Japanese. _What an awkward Hiragana_ , Sana thought. And the ‘your friend’ was in Korean. She quickly snatched open Myoui Mina’s notebook to match the handwritings, since Myoui Mina took notes in Korean. She compared both handwritings on the paper and the notebook. They were different.

“Guys, guys, come here for a second!”

Jackson and Youngjae ran in literally a flash to where Sana was, Myoui Mina’s bedroom, and Sana had to hold her eye roll when Youngjae hit the single bed with a bang and ended up clutching his leg with a painful groan. For a moment she was reminded of how clumsy she was back then.

“What? What is it?” Jackson asked, panicked.

“I found this.” Sana showed both of them the piece of paper, “Someone left it on that window. It’s most likely not Myoui Mina’s handwriting. It’s different. Look at her notebook. She doesn’t write like this.”

Jackson nodded his head and Youngjae was busy taking notes.

“And the Hiragana is… kind of awkward too. Myoui Mina is fluent. I assume she writes Hiragana better than this.”

Youngjae’s hand reached the window and he pushed it open, just like Sana did earlier, “It’s not locked.”

“It’s broken. The lock is broken, look.” Jackson pointed at it, “It’s not locked because it can’t be locked anymore.”

“Youngjae, match this handwriting with Han Sungwoon’s.” Sana handed Youngjae the paper, “I’ll go outside.”

The window was on the right side of the small house. Sana and Jackson walked outside and tried to find something, even better someone there, but it was empty. There was nothing and no one there. The window looked even dirtier from outside.

“Sunbaenim!” Youngjae followed them, bringing the paper and some random notes Han Sungwoon left in his room, “It’s not his handwriting either. It’s neater.”

Sana crossed her arms, “Someone’s been in here. Myoui Mina’s friend, maybe?”

“She doesn’t have friends.” Jackson shook his head, “I went to her school, no one admitted to be her friends. They all just said bad things about her and all. According to the neighbors, she doesn’t go out that much too.”

“So it’s possible this friend isn’t from that school.” Sana had the piece of paper in her hand again and showed it to Jackson and Youngjae, “Look, this person wrote in Japanese. They must be at least educated in the language, if not fluent. Do you think those delinquents in her school are educated?”

Youngjae was scribbling on his notes again, “Someone who is educated in Japanese… not from Myoui Mina’s school…”

“The handwriting doesn’t match Myoui Mina’s or Han Sungwoon’s. It must be someone from outside the house. They put it in the window from outside. It’s easy, since the window isn’t locked. They opened it from outside.” Sana continued.

“But how? The window is pretty up high, though. Assuming the friend is around Myoui Mina’s age with that height how could they--”

Jackson was silenced when Sana pointed at a pretty big trash bin on the ground, a little below the window, “They climbed. I’ll try.”

Sana took off her shoes and easily stepped her feet one by one until she was standing on the trash bin. Her hand reached the window and she could open it freely.

Youngjae clapped his hands, “Wow Sunbaenim…”

Jackson stopped him by grabbing the back of his neck, “So, your theory is, someone, might be Myoui Mina’s friend, left a piece of paper in the window from outside the house by climbing or standing on this trash bin.”

Sana jumped back to the ground, “Bingo.”

“Great. But, what should we do now? I mean, we don’t know who they are. I don’t know how to find out either. There’s no CCTV near here.”

“I have an idea. Give me the paper and your pen, Youngjae.”

It might not work, Sana knew. But it was the only thing that crossed her mind at the moment. She wrote down using Youngjae’s pen in the empty space of the paper.

_Hi. This is Minatozaki Sana from the homicide division of Seoul Police Station. We are currently investigating Myoui Mina’s case and would like you to cooperate with us. We keep secrets and are going to respect your privacy if you decide to join. You can look up information about us on the internet if you’re having doubts Thank you._

“In Japanese?” Jackson eyed the paper, “Why?”

“To lessen the risk of other people understanding it if it ends up in the wrong hands.” She folded the paper and gave it to Jackson, “Put it inside the window.”

Youngjae did as he told. Sana stared up at the window as Youngjae closed it slowly, being careful so the folded paper wouldn’t fall down.

“Since there’s no CCTV here, we should hire someone to spy on this place from now on. This friend might come back in anytime. We can’t miss it.”

“Right.” Jackson nodded, “Youngjae, call the other boys and ask if they can help. The faster the better.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Jackson sighed, following where Sana was looking at, the window, “Do you think this will work?”

Sana just smiled lopsidedly as she tapped Jackson’s arm, “I don’t know. At least we tried.”

****


	2. two

Bringing up a case which investigation had declared finished wouldn’t always end the best if it took too much time. Sana knew that. She also knew that even though Chief _never said no to her_ at one point he would come and shout at her for being useless in digging into a case that was supposed to end way earlier. He was getting older and it didn’t help his temper. Sana didn’t mind being shouted at, she just wanted her thirty minutes to be brought back because she’d rather work than listen to Chief’s loud nags.

She also unfortunately bumped into Yoo Jungyeon, another colleague a year her senior who matched Chief in terms of loudness. She complained at Sana because Jackson had to withdraw from the Busan dead body case so Jungyeon ended up handling the case alone as the team leader. Jungyeon was a close friend before they both got so busy, so Sana knew her pretty well. She only smiled apologetically at her and had to nod when Jungyeon insisted that Sana also had to help her in that case in exchange of Jackson.

God, she really didn’t want to.

Momo was in her cube when she went back. She grinned when Sana came with a hand massaging her sore neck. Her eye bags were visible too.

“I don’t get why you’re so persistent with this case.” Momo went straight to the point and Sana didn’t question which case she was talking about because literally, Sana’s life had been circling around that one particular case for almost two weeks already, “It’s not even yours to begin with.”

Sana tied her hair in a messy ponytail as she sat down across Momo, “It bothers me when a case is left hanging.”

“Do you really think she didn’t kill her stepfather?”

Sana sighed. Momo, just like the others except Jackson and Youngjae, misunderstood her purpose in re-investigating the case.

“No.”

“Then what--”

“I’m about seventy-percent sure that she did murder him. I’m not trying to prove if she didn’t. That’s not my point. The evidences are clear. I’m just trying to find out _why_. There has to be a reason.” Sana rubbed her forehead tiredly, “And above all I want to make her confess. She might be sentenced for three to five years longer if she insisted of not confessing.”

Momo frowned, “That long?”

“Yeah, she’s no longer considered a minor. She’s twenty, nineteen is her international age which is not relevant.”

“Any progress so far?”

“Not much.” Sana shook her head, “I did what Jackson had done before and the results are the same. Her schoolmates said she’s a bully, her neighbors claimed she never socializes with them, and so on.”

“How about the girl? Does she know her case is being investigated again?”

“Maybe. Her scheduled trial is postponed. I doubt it if she has no idea about this. I haven’t met her again, though…”

“Hey, you should. I heard she communicates better with you.”

Sana raised her eyebrows. She didn’t know how the case became that popular among her colleagues until even Momo, who was equally busy, if not more, had heard things about it.

“I only met her once.”

“Yeah, but she talked more than the countless times she met Jackson. She might spill some subtle information, you never know.” Momo pushed Sana’s car key on the desk to the owner, “Go meet her. It’s better than being scolded by Chief.”

Sana rolled her eyes, “Don’t remind me. But okay, I’ll go.”

-

Myoui Mina stayed in a women penitentiary and Sana hated that place. She once handled a homicide case which culprit was a female and had like, a whole pack backing her up so she wouldn’t be blamed. Sana almost lost her job in bringing her to trial. Chief endlessly told her to stop but she didn’t listen. In the end the case was brought to trial but the sentence was way, way shorter than what it should’ve been. Bad, bad times.

Sana didn’t regret it, though. It was one of the reasons why Chief listened to her more than the others.

The keepers there already knew who she was asking for. Sana only half-heartedly smiled knowing how wide this re-investigation had spread. She really was going to get killed if she didn’t finish this case like she wanted to.

Turned out Myoui Mina had her own cell because Jackson requested it in order for her not to get too stressed. According to the keepers, he also regularly came by to talk and give some human foods to the girl. Sana couldn’t mock Jackson of his soft side anymore hearing that. She also felt the same. There was just an urge in her to take care of Myoui Mina, and she didn’t know why, because the girl was a criminal, and she knew that.

Myoui Mina was sitting on the floor when Sana came to her cell. Realizing her presence, the girl quickly hid some things inside her palms. Sana didn’t catch what they were. She still smiled to the girl, though. Myoui Mina looked fine, just like that time when Sana interrogated her. Jackson really treated this girl in a good way.

The keepers locked the cell and left the two alone after Sana came in. She waited until they were pretty far before she started.

“Hi,” Sana greeted, in Japanese, “I’m Minatozaki Sana, in case you forget.”

A hesitant nod, “Yes, Detective.”

Sana sat down on the floor, keeping her distance so Myoui Mina wouldn’t freak out, “How have you been?”

“Fine, Detective…”

“Have you eaten? I heard Detective Wang came by just now.”

And it was unfair because if Jackson had told her, Sana would’ve chosen to come with him than staying at the office and ended up being scolded.

Another hesitant nod, “Yes, Detective.”

“Hmm…” She then eyed Myoui Mina’s clenched fists, curious of what she was hiding, “what are those?”

Myoui Mina just stared at her in confusion, still refusing to show Sana the things she was holding.

“Can I see them?”

She basically didn’t have any choice because Sana would end up being suspicious if she kept on hiding them, so Myoui Mina slowly unclenched her fists and put them down on the floor. Sana stared at them with raised eyebrows.

Those were small handicraft goods. One was shaped like a penguin and the other one was a swan. Sana smiled, thinking _how cute_ as she grabbed both and observed them. She thought they were made of plastic, but it seemed like they were made of fiberglass instead.

“Penguin and swan.” Sana mumbled, “You like these animals?”

Myoui Mina looked down, “My mom said I resemble both.”

Sana didn’t expect Myoui Mina would mention her mother, “Oh, really? How so?”

“I don’t know. She just said that.” Myoui Mina shrugged.

“You were close with her.”

Just like what Sana had guessed.

“Do these remind you of her?”

“Kind of…”

“These are cute, though. Where did you get them? Or did you make them yourself?”

Myoui Mina suddenly hugged herself and leaned to the wall, away from Sana, “No, Detective.”

Sana took a mental note of that reaction, “Then how--”

“A… a friend gave them to me.”

Sana was delighted to hear that but she kept her poker face, “I see.”

A friend gave two handicraft goods shaped like the two animals said to resemble Myoui Mina. That friend must’ve known about what penguin and swan meant to the girl and there was a high chance that they were close to each other. For someone as introverted as Myoui Mina, to be able to share things like that was a special case and Sana was sure, this friend wasn’t just like any other friend.

Momo was right. She really got some subtle information.

“Detective,”

Sana jerked her head to the girl when she called her. She then realized how vulnerable Myoui Mina looked at the moment, compared to the first time they met. She really shouldn’t judge Jackson’s soft side anymore because the more she spent times with this girl, the more worried and _caring_ she felt.

“Yes?”

“I didn’t kill him.”

Her voice was far from her firm defense Sana had heard back in the interrogation room. If Myoui Mina said that under a different circumstance, Sana would roll her eyes and ignore it because it seemed like the only things the girl could say to her. But Sana didn’t know, that time felt different. It was like she really meant it. Those words were useless without any evidence, Sana knew. But that time Sana decided to listen.

“As much as I hate him,” Myoui Mina looked down, “I didn’t.”

Sana really wanted to ask further, but she was afraid if it would make the girl panic and their talk had to end.

“Hey,” Sana started again, but Myoui Mina refused to look up, “I respect your defense, okay? I’m doing this for the sake of you too. I know until now you still refuse to talk more but if in the end the result of my investigation isn’t the same as your point of view then… the only way is to talk to me. I will listen. You have rights to tell me your story.”

Sana tilted her head and smiled at the girl but the next words made that smile falter.

“That’s not what the others say…”

Sana frowned instantly, “… What?”

The girl became frozen and hugged herself tighter.

“The others? What did they say to you?”

Myoui Mina then looked up nervously, “They never told me to talk.”

“What do you mean?”

“They…” Myoui Mina pulled on her long sleeves, “the detectives… they just wanted me to say this and that…”

The frown got even deeper, “So they-- I mean, did they keep asking you questions or did they just go straight telling you to say _yes, I murdered my stepfather_?”

The girl paused for a really long three seconds before she said in a very, very low voice, “Both, Detective.”

Sana was stunned for a moment before she realized what had happened in the past investigation. Myoui Mina looked back down in a hurry when it became obvious that Sana was pissed. She moved closer to the wall, if that was possible, and stayed further away from Sana.

“Okay, so that’s what happened.” Sana mumbled, “I uh… I need to get going.”

She returned the handicraft goods to Myoui Mina before standing up and called the keepers. Myoui Mina had the same confused expression just like when she left the last time. When one of the keepers came and unlocked the cell, Sana turned to the girl one more time and said with a smile,

“Take care. I’ll visit again soon.”

-

Jackson was writing down something on his desk with Youngjae sitting down beside him when Sana came. Both of them looked up and smiled but it soon faded because Sana looked anything but friendly.

“What?” Jackson asked slowly when Sana put her purse on his desk with a loud bang.

“You should’ve told me you didn’t even let Myoui Mina speak.”

Jackson looked around nervously, realizing some eyes were on them, “Sana, let’s talk outside--”

“How did you actually interrogate her?” Sana ignored him, “Did you keep pressing on her to confess before even hearing her point of view?”

Sana felt like Jackson would come up with the _Myoui Mina was hard to communicate with_ excuse but even though she knew it was true, it was still unfair for the girl not to be able to defend herself properly. And it happened a lot in cases like this. Some alleged culprits were pressed to admit of their crime without being asked of their point of view. Of course, they were most likely guilty, but _that was not how it worked._

Sana _hated_ that. If it happened, it meant that the detective in charge was too lazy to find the correlation between the culprit’s story and the evidences found, and instead just told the culprit they better admit to finish the case _quickly_.

He stood up, “Look, I had no choice--”

“What do you mean you have no choice--”

“Chief told me to!”

“And so what?” Sana was furious, “Chief told you this, Chief told you that, you always put the blame on him as if you have no say in this!”

“Then what was I supposed to do? The case was going nowhere!”

“And you weren’t capable to finish it?”

“Sunbaenim, we were just--”

“I’m not talking to you.” Sana shot Youngjae a glare and he immediately regretted his attempt to explain.

“Sana,” Jackson sighed, “you’re working on this case with me for like, two weeks, and there’s still no significant clue. Until when are you going to do this? What makes you so sure you can make a change?”

“Because every case is important and every crime has its reasons and motives even if they don’t make sense, that’s what keeps me going. I’m not going to be like you and inherit Chief’s view of handling cases. I do things differently, and you know it.”

Jackson knew he could never win, “And what if I just wanted to do the same but I couldn’t?”

“Maybe if you worked better and took some of your precious time to actually _listen_ to Myoui Mina, you’d be able to bring your case further than this.” Sana grasped her purse back, “I’m going to finish this case properly. If you don’t want to work with me then fine. Just tell Chief that I’m taking this over.”

And with that she left, heart pumping so fast she needed coffee to ease herself down.

-

_God, can Jackson get any more annoying._

Sana erased her cloudy thoughts when she heard the front door being opened. She turned her head slightly and her mood became a bit brighter when someone she had expected came inside the store.

When she bought a cup of warm coffee in a convenience store, she bumped to one of Myoui Mina’s teachers. Well, not coincidentally, of course. She knew where the teachers usually went to buy things. She observed. She just waited for the right time to act as if they coincidentally met.

Unlike some others, this teacher looked kind and young. Sana had a hard time asking questions to the teachers even the headmaster. They said they didn’t accept any more police officer to their school because their reputation became tainted and they didn’t want to be associated with Myoui Mina ever again. Sana didn’t hide her cringe when they said that. They really had no shame.

Sana who was originally hesitant in approaching the teachers, didn’t think twice to greet this kind-and-young looking teacher in that convenience store.

“Hello,” She bowed with a bright smile, “I’m Minatozaki Sana. I visited the school some days ago.”

“Oh, hi. I’m Park Jihyo.” The teacher bowed back even though she was still hesitant, “Is there anything I can help?”

“Oh, no, no. I just went here to get some coffee. I didn’t expect to meet you.” Sana took a sip of her coffee, “Do you live nearby?”

“Yes, in the apartment some blocks from here, Detective.”

Sana nodded her head, “I see.”

They talked a bit more after that. Sana learned that Park Jihyo was an art teacher, because she majored in art. Park Jihyo added she was kind of fascinated seeing a female detective in real life because almost all of them were male. Sana also asked, rather bluntly, of why Park Jihyo worked in a school of delinquents like that instead of in a decent one. And it wasn’t like the university she was attending wasn’t widely known. The art teacher only laughed and said it was just temporary until she graduated college. She wanted to move too later.

After they exited the convenience store, their talk hadn’t ended.

“Are you still working on Myoui Mina’s case, Detective?”

Sana was more than pleased that she wasn’t the one who brought up Myoui Mina first, “Ah, yes. I still am until now.”

“I’m glad.” Park Jihyo smiled.

Sana was confused. As far as she knew those teachers hated her guts.

“How so?”

“It’s just…” The teacher hesitated for a bit but Sana kept staring, because there was no way a detective would be left in curiosity, “do you think she really… murdered her stepfather?”

Sana shrugged, “I just follow the assumptions, facts and evidences. If they match, then Myoui Mina is the culprit.”

Park Jihyo only nodded and looked down. Sana noticed how her eyes dropped.

“Why? Is there something else? You can tell me, you know. I can consider it in the investigation if it’s useful.”

“I don’t know, it’s just my personal opinion.” The teacher shrugged back but Sana kept demanding with her stares, “I don’t think she’s a murderer.”

“How so?”

“Well… she might be not the kindest girl you know but… murdering people is like on another level and I don’t think she’s that kind of person, Detective.”

Sana nodded her head, “What more do you know about her?”

“Not much, really. I just happen to remember her a bit more than the others. She seemed to like my class.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Park Jihyo smiled and Sana was awed at how often the teacher did since it was engrafted in her mind that Myoui Mina’s teachers were all evil-looking, “You know how my students are. They don’t even take their math class seriously, let alone an _art_ one where all they do is draw or paint. But Mina liked it. She always showed up, and even though she mostly sat at the back, she finished every assignment I told the students to do.”

Sana frowned. She didn’t remember having anything art-related to Myoui Mina. There wasn’t even any doodle in the girl’s notebook.

“Just for your information Detective, Mina skipped class a lot. She’s not very studious, that’s why she’s still in the second grade. So I guess it’s safe to assume that art class was one of her favorite.”

“Hmm…” Sana rubbed her chin, “I never heard about that… I didn’t find anything artsy about her either…”

Hearing that, Park Jihyo chuckled, “Oh no, I didn’t say she was artsy. In fact, she’s actually pretty bad at it.”

“Bad?”

“She can’t draw. Or paint. Or write poems. Her Korean is pretty awful too.” Another soft chuckle and Sana nodded in agreement, “She’s bad at art. She just liked the class and made an effort in it. In fact every time she handed her assignment to me she always said, _Teacher, at least I tried_.”

Both of them laughed at the teacher’s imitation and Sana became sure Park Jihyo wasn’t making up stories because she knew exactly the informal language Myoui Mina usually used, and the imitation matched.

Sana still made a mental note of that. _Likes art but is bad at art._ It didn’t make sense and she wanted to ask more but Park Jihyo was faster.

“I think she’s heavily influenced by her friend.”

The detective would be lying if she said her ears didn’t perk hearing the last word, “Friend?”

“Yes. She has a friend but not from the school. I guess you didn’t know about this, Detective?”

“No, I didn’t.” She didn’t hide her actual purpose anymore as she threw the empty cup to a trash can and grasped her phone to record their conversation, “Can you tell me more?”

“Well… I’m not sure if it’s worth anything big since it’s just a little information but I know that she has a friend, a girl, but not from the school. I saw her often either driving Mina to school or picking her up after the school ended.”

“Driving? Do you remember the car?”

“Hmm… not really… she didn’t always use the same car. The one I remember the most is a black sedan.”

“Black sedan…”

_This friend is rich._

“Do you know who the friend is?”

“I don’t know her name but I do recognize her. At first I couldn’t remember why she kind of looked familiar but turned out she’s in the same major as me, just maybe two years my junior. Or is it three… I don’t remember…”

“So you’re saying that this friend is majoring in art in the same university as yours?”

“Yes, Detective. Not from my batch though, that’s for sure.”

“Okay… so she must be educated, right? I mean, she’s attending one of the most famous universities in Seoul so--”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Park Jihyo nodded.

Sana snapped her fingers. _Bingo_.

“That’s all I know, Detective.” Another smile, “I’m not sure if it helps but--”

“It does! It does, it really does!” Sana held both the teacher’s shoulders as she couldn’t feel any happier at the fact that the investigation might go further, “Thank you very much for telling me this. It really means a lot.”

“Well then, I’m glad I can help a bit, Detective.”

They talked a bit more after that and Sana ended up driving Park Jihyo to her apartment as a way to express her gratefulness. The teacher also gave Sana her phone number and she was willing to help more if needed. They bid goodbyes in the front door of Park Jihyo’s apartment and Sana couldn’t hide her excitement when she entered her car to get back to the office quickly.

But before she could start her car, her phone rang. It was Jackson.

Sana rolled her eyes.

_“Sana--”_

“It better be important.”

_“Look, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you about… about what my team and I did during the past investigation. I… you were upset enough and I didn’t want to make it worse. You were right, I should’ve--”_

“I’m hanging up.”

_“No, wait! I just want to apologize and--”_

“You already did. I’m hanging up.”

_“No! Listen to me first! Where are you now?”_

“Just nearby. Why?”

_“Okay, I’m just going to skip the apology. Sana, we found something. It’s very important. You should get back here now. And no, you’re not going to take over. We’ll work and finish this together. Please?”_

Sana instantly started her car, “Okay. I’m on my way.”

-

There was nothing more exciting for Sana than finding new clues of a case. She stared fascinatingly at the laptop screen and at the papers showed to her. Behind her, Jackson, Youngjae, and some other young detectives and police officers stood nervously, afraid of her reaction. Well, Sana was already far from angry then.

Jackson had sent some of his boys to spy around Myoui Mina’s house in case of the friend who slipped a piece of paper in the window came back. And she did. There was a girl, doing exactly like Sana had predicted, standing on the big trash bin and found the paper, with Sana’s handwriting in it. Sana stared at the pictures of the girl, and she was sure that was the same friend Park Jihyo was referring to.

 _Perfect_.

“This is her.” Jackson gave her some more papers and it showed the girl’s profile, “It’s not hard to track her since we caught her face clearly.”

Sana nodded her head, “Lim Nayeon, twenty years old…”

“She showed up today around--”

“Is she majoring in art?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t include what she’s majoring in.” Sana pointed at the paper as she looked up to the nervous Jackson.

She actually wanted to laugh. She didn’t know Jackson was still that scared of her.

“S-she is, Sunbaenim.” Youngjae answered instead and Sana turned to him, “The sling bag she was bringing is from t-the art major club--”

“Why are you stuttering?”

“Y-yes?”

“Why are you stuttering?” Sana asked again, with a laugh this time, “Why are all of you so tense? Relax a bit. I don’t bite.”

Jackson’s sigh came out simultaneously as the relieved breath the others let out after Sana said that.

“You’re unbelievable.”

Sana shrugged as she spoke to the rest of the boys, “Good job, everyone. Now all of you can go. Let me have some time with Jackson and Youngjae.”

They quickly bowed and left the room.

“How did you know she’s majoring in art?” Jackson asked when the three of them were already seated and left alone in that small meeting room, “You knew about her before?”

“I just had some information, so let’s match it. Youngjae, write it down.”

Youngjae already had his notes ready.

“Lim Nayeon, twenty years old, majoring in art, is at least decently educated…” Sana read the school Lim Nayeon went to and her eyebrows were raised, “wow, her elementary, middle, and high schools are all… expensive schools.”

Jackson nodded, “It’s expected. Her father is a professor.”

“She lives in Cheongdam-dong, went to expensive schools, has at least one car since you said she went to Gangbuk-gu by car but parked it somewhere far because there was no parking lot near Myoui Mina’s house… she’s rich. How could she be friends with Myoui Mina?”

“That, I don’t know. It’s actually pretty weird for me too. Maybe their family had a relation or something? Maybe Myoui Mina’s stepfather worked for Lim Nayeon’s family back then? I don’t know. I haven’t looked into it.”

“Should we ask Myoui Mina about this, Sunbaenim?”

“No, no, we have to find out as much as we can first before letting her know.” Sana pointed at Lim Nayeon’s picture, “This girl might be the key to the case. Since it seems like she’s the closest to Myoui Mina even referring herself as _your friend_ , she knows a lot. If we can get her here, we probably will find out everything.”

“Yeah, but how? It’s been hours since she read your message in that paper and she still hasn’t contacted us. It’s not easy for someone to just… willingly go to us and talk, you know.”

Sana sighed. Jackson was right.

The girl named Lim Nayeon went to Myoui Mina’s house two or three hours earlier and Jackson decided to call Sana first before doing some research. He and Youngjae only had some basic information and even though Sana was happy enough they found something new, there were still so many holes unfilled.

“Wait, wait.” Sana suddenly found something weird. She zoomed in the picture on the screen and narrowed her eyes, “She was wearing gloves.”

Gray. Sana noted the color. Lim Nayeon was wearing gray gloves. And it wasn’t even winter.

“Yeah, she was…” Jackson stared questioningly at Sana, “why was she--”

“That, we have to find out.” Sana stood up, “Okay guys, we just found something potential so let’s not waste it. Dig more information about this Lim Nayeon girl and don’t stop before we find something. Find out how she’s related to Myoui Mina, how their relationship is, and most importantly, who she is exactly. Now off to work. We don’t have much time before Chief comes back and shout on our face again.”

The three of them started doing their own jobs. Sana arranged the papers and prepared the recording of her conversation with Park Jihyo, Jackson closed the curtains to give them more privacy, and Youngjae brought the whiteboard they had been using, with pictures of Myoui Mina and Han Sungwoon pasted on it.

Jackson and Youngjae sat together to listen to the recording while Sana added the third picture, Lim Nayeon, onto the whiteboard. She wrote and drew arrows to match the relations of the new girl to Myoui Mina and Han Sungwoon.

“They match.” Jackson mumbled, after the recording had ended.

“What about her Japanese?” Sana asked, “Where did she learn it?”

“High school, Sunbaenim.” Youngjae circled the high school written on the paper, “The students there have to choose which foreign language beside English they want to learn. One of the choices is Japanese. The others are like French, Mandarin, Spanish…”

“Perfect. It’s clearly her.” Sana finished writing and sat back down, “I didn’t catch it in the recording but just for the information,” she gestured Youngjae to take notes and he quickly did as he told, “Park Jihyo is an art teacher and according to her, Myoui Mina liked her class. She liked art. For someone who skipped classes a lot, Myoui Mina’s attendance in the art class was something else because she always showed up. But the thing is, she isn’t good in it. You know it’s obvious if someone is good or bad at art, right?”

“So you’re saying that she likes a subject she’s bad at?”

“Exactly. It’s weird but Park Jihyo said Myoui Mina might be influenced by her friend, which is Lim Nayeon and she’s majoring in art. She’s two or three years Park Jihyo’s junior and the fact that Park Jihyo recognizes her, means that she’s pretty well-known, in her university, at least.”

Jackson crossed his arms, “We really need her.”

“But how, Sunbaenim? Can we just go to her house and ask her?”

“That won’t work.” Sana shook her head, “She’s from a rich family and has a name in the university since her father is a professor. There’s no way her family lets her do it. People will start talking and it will taint their family name since it’s just not a simple crime case, it’s a homicide. They’ll probably kick us out before we can get inside.”

“What should we do now, then?”

Sana bit her lip and eyed the pictures on the paper. Lim Nayeon came by Myoui Mina’s house and took the paper Sana left in the window. It seemed like she read it but she just went away after that.

She couldn’t help but feel weird.

“We just need to wait. Lim Nayeon had read the paper. She’s probably searching for information about us right now, since I wrote my name. I mean, if she really cares for Myoui Mina, she’ll cooperate, right? There’s no way she’d put efforts in leaving messages for Myoui Mina if she didn’t care about her.”

“Yeah, hopefully she will…”

“In the meantime let’s do some research about her. Let’s find out more about her, whatever it is. Be it her grades, her activities, her habits, everything. Also her parents, friends, people around her. Okay?”

Jackson and Youngjae nodded, “Let’s do it.”

Sana then stood up and stared at the three pictures on the whiteboard.

_Myoui Mina, Han Sungwoon, Lim Nayeon._

She sighed. This might take even longer.

****


	3. three

“You’re kidding, right?”

Yoo Jungyeon just shrugged as she nonchalantly took another huge bite of Sana’s chocolate bread. Sana bought it for herself because she was starving but she could only stare at her colleague, or her senior, because she was too stunned at what Jungyeon just told her. She slowly could feel her chest filled with annoyance.

When Jungyeon asked her, or forced, to be exact, to help in the Busan dead body case, Sana thought all she had to do was just _helping_ and not actually _joining_ the team. Of course she knew sooner or later there would be a new case handed to her but she didn’t expect for it to be decided one-sidedly. Jungyeon just had to use her seniority privilege and ended up putting her in the team without Sana’s consent.

If Yoo Jungyeon weren’t her senior, Sana had already imagined what she’d do to her. What’s a year difference anyway, they spoke to each other comfortably and sometimes didn’t hesitate to throw curses here and there.

Sana really wanted to do that at the moment.

“Chief said yes.” Jungyeon continued, after she had finished Sana’s chocolate bread, “He said your robbery case had finished. Fifteen years imprisonment! Amazing!”

Sana wasn’t amused, “And instead of giving me a break he decided to throw another case to my face. Yay.”

With that she dropped her head onto her desk. She really didn’t want to do it. She might handle the least cases but as always, those were heavy cases like the one that had just finished, the robbery in the former mayor’s apartment. There was an attempt of murder and using that reason, Sana was hired to handle. It finally ended with the sentence of fifteen years of imprisonment for the culprits.

And Sana was so, so tired because of that.

Jungyeon paused for a moment seeing Sana. She knew how busy Sana was, and how hesitant she would be in taking the Busan dead body case with Jungyeon. But at the same time Sana was capable. Jungyeon actually didn’t ask Chief to take Sana in her team, but instead Chief told her to, and the moment Chief told so, she didn’t have any choice. Telling the others to put Minatozaki Sana in their team basically meant that no other detective could finish the case and if Sana didn’t join, the case would be left unfinished.

Jungyeon just wasn’t sure if Sana was aware of that unspoken rule.

“Hey,” She patted Sana’s head, “I know now you’re like super pissed at me for this but I don’t think I need to be so honest in telling you that my case is going nowhere. It’s been almost two months, we found nothing. You know how we actually are when we ask you to join. We really need you, Minatozaki.”

“If you can’t even finish it, what makes you think I can?”

Another pat on the head, “That’s why we’ll work together, smartass.”

Sana stared up at Jungyeon, head still on the desk, “What do I get for joining?”

“Well, you get to work with me again?”

Sana rolled her eyes, “Not intriguing enough.”

Even though honestly, working with Jungyeon was pretty fun.

“You basically can’t say no anyway, why bother.”

“Ugh, right.” Sana sat straight again, sighing, “Unlucky me, I guess.”

“You won’t be the one having the most job there, I will.” Jungyeon pointed at herself, “I’m the team leader, I’ll be the one responsible, not you.”

“How interesting.”

“Of course it is. I’ll also make sure you won’t starve when we work so you don’t have to worry about your stomach.”

“How caring.”

“Of course I am.” Jungyeon stood up and patted Sana’s head once more, ruffling her hair, “We’ll start tomorrow, Minatozaki. There are some new kids I want to introduce too. See you tomorrow!”

Sana dropped her head back onto the desk after Jungyeon left her cube. Her stomach was still grumbling and she mentally scolded herself of how she let Jungyeon snatch that bread from her. It was already noon and the last time she ate was the night before, with Momo’s ramen. Momo had a box full of ramen cups under her desk and she said Sana could take them whenever she wanted. It wasn’t healthy but they had no choice.

When her eyes started getting heavy, Sana left the thoughts to walk to Momo’s desk for a ramen cup and thought of sleep instead. It would be nice if she could just close her eyes and doze for at least, thirty minutes or so--

“Sunbaenim! Sunbaenim!”

But of course she couldn’t.

“Sunbaenim!”

It was Youngjae. Sana could hear his loud steps running to her cube. She sighed weakly, unwillingly looked up at her young junior.

“Sunbaenim!”

“What?”

“Sunbaenim, she came! Lim Nayeon came!”

Sana stilled. _Wait, what?_

She sat straight instantly, “What?!”

“Yes, Sunbaenim! Just now! She’s in the front office now!”

Sana kept staring at him weirdly.

“Sunbaenim!”

“Okay, okay,” Sana stood up, she too, was confused, “umm… get her to the interrogation room and tell her to wait for a moment. Call Jackson to get back here quickly. Also, act like we know nothing about her. We can’t let her know that we already know who she is.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim. I understand.” Youngjae nodded before dashing off in the speed of light to the front office again.

Sana’s heart raced as her shaky hands started rummaging through her desk and its drawers to find the papers of Myoui Mina’s case. She had lost hope of Lim Nayeon’s cooperation because a week had passed and there was no news about her. Sana was kind of caught up in that robbery case too so she abandoned this murder case for a few days. The same thing happened to Jackson because of his other cases.

_Shit, where are they?_

She had written down a list of questions for Lim Nayeon, she just forgot where she put it. She literally threw everything away only to find it folded inside her coat pocket. Sana sighed as she grasped and unfolded it. Bless her for being so hopeful that she actually wrote a lot of questions for Lim Nayeon.

Youngjae brought Lim Nayeon inside the interrogation room. Sana actually wanted to be more casual and use the small meeting room, but they needed to be quick and record every single thing during the interrogation so they had no choice. Sana just wanted Lim Nayeon to be as comfortable as she could. Having a witness _voluntarily_ came to the office was a very, very rare case and Sana couldn’t be any more grateful.

“She arrived here about… twenty minutes ago or so and said she was looking for Detective Minatozaki Sana.” Youngjae explained after Sana stepped inside the room beside where Lim Nayeon was, the interrogation room, “The front officers were clueless about her so they asked what it was for, and Lim Nayeon said for Myoui Mina’s case. That’s why they called me, Sunbaenim.”

“I see.”

Lim Nayeon in person looked exactly like Sana had predicted. Neat, polite, branded clothes, branded shoes, branded bag, _pretty_.

She just seemed kind of nervous inside the empty and quiet room, waiting for Sana.

“Where’s Jackson?”

“He’s on his way, Sunbaenim.”

Sana nodded and continued observing their witness. Lim Nayeon crossed her legs under the desk and tapped her fingers on it, sometimes fiddling with her long shirt sleeves. The gestures were kind of similar to Myoui Mina’s. Especially the hands.

_Wait._

Hands.

Lim Nayeon wasn’t wearing gloves. Sana frowned. Gloves were important. She wanted to ask about the gloves. She even wrote it down. But if Lim Nayeon didn’t wear them, there was no way she could ask, or even bring that up in the first place, because she was supposed to know _nothing_ about her.

Sana sighed.

“Give her a cup of tea.”

“Yes?” Youngjae looked at her questioningly, he knew what it meant, “Why--”

“I just want to know if she’s aware or not. If she is, it’s a good material to investigate. If she’s not, it’s even better that we can get her fingerprint easily.”

Sana always loved the idea of a cup of tea.

“Go get her one. One for me too. I’ll come in after you give her the tea.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Lim Nayeon nodded her head politely when Youngjae came and put two cups of tea on the desk. Sana crossed her arms as she watched how Lim Nayeon pulled both hands away from the desk to her lap when she saw the tea. She didn’t touch her cup. She just smiled at Youngjae and thanked him, also hesitantly asking him when Detective Minatozaki Sana would arrive. When he said soon, she saw how Lim Nayeon’s shoulder sagged and she leaned further to the backrest.

Sana noted them all.

Realizing she couldn’t make her guest wait even longer, Sana quickly came inside after Youngjae left the room, switching with him. She knocked twice and slowly pushed the door open. Lim Nayeon’s eyes kind of widened a little seeing her, probably the first female she encountered in the whole place.

Sana sat down across her and smiled politely, “Hello, I’m Minatozaki Sana. I assume you found the notes on the window?”

Lim Nayeon nodded, “Yes, Detective. My name is Lim Nayeon.”

“Miss Lim Nayeon,” Sana repeated the name, writing it down on her notes, “firstly, I’d like to thank you very much for coming to cooperate with us. We know it must be difficult for you to decide, but we appreciate your braveness very much. If you want us to protect your privacy, we will do as we told as long as you cooperate, Miss.”

“Yes, please do, Detective.”

Sana didn’t question that, “Of course, Miss. Don’t worry about that.”

The person across her was a daughter of a well-known professor and lived a luxurious life, a complete opposite of the person she cared so much, Myoui Mina. Sana needed to calm herself down because finally, maybe, all her curiosity would be answered right away with Lim Nayeon there.

“So, today, I’ll be asking you questions regarding to the case and I hope you’ll answer it truthfully because we will put them into our investigation, basically we will take them seriously. Can you do it?”

“Yes, Detective.”

“Okay, let’s start.” Sana sneaked the paper with the prepared questions between her notes so it wouldn’t be noticeable, “First, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?”

Lim Nayeon only blinked. She looked clueless.

“Like, your name, age, job…”

“Umm… my name is Lim Nayeon, I’m twenty years old, twenty-one to be exact,” She bit her lip, her eyes wandered here and there as she continued, “I graduated high school two years ago and now I’m in college… majoring in art…”

“Art?” Sana raised her eyebrows, “Interesting. Why art?”

“Because… I… like art?”

Sana smiled seeing how tense the girl was, “That’s cool. I was just curious.” She shrugged and then turned serious again, “Okay, so… it seems like you’re close with Myoui Mina. Is it true? Are you close with her?”

“Yes, Detective.”

“Can you tell me how the two of you met? How did you become friends with her?”

Lim Nayeon looked down to her lap and Sana had to lift her head because the girl took a pretty long time to answer. Sana wanted to urge the girl to _just tell_ but at the same time she didn’t want to rush. She might miss some important information if she couldn’t stay being patient. Even if Lim Nayeon lied, everything was being recorded so she could just play it again to observe things she didn’t notice.

“When I was still in school,” Lim Nayeon finally started, “I was learning about arts and all as one of my courses. The place was near Mina’s school.”

Sana wrote it down. _Art courses_.

“I don’t really remember because it was back in my second year in high school but I met her around there and I tried to talk to her but she was so quiet then I looked at her nametag in her uniform and I asked if she was Japanese and that’s how… we met.”

_Japanese._

“After you asked her if she was Japanese, did she start talking to you?”

A nod, “I talked to her in Japanese.”

“You can speak Japanese?”

“A little. I took courses when I was younger, Japanese was one of them.” Lim Nayeon put both hands on the desk, “I’m still not fluent but I can hold conversations with Mina.”

_Why did someone like you insist to befriend someone like Myoui Mina, then?_

“And after that you two became close?”

Another nod.

“Just like that?”

“Yes… I don’t… really remember…”

_She doesn’t remember._

Sana spun her pen with her fingers, “Okay. So… you two became close and all. Did you hang out every day or something?”

“No, we couldn’t. When I was in school, I only met her when I had art course and after I graduated I became busy that I couldn’t meet her that often.”

“How did you keep in touch, then? Usually friends like that tend to become distant.”

“We still talked.” Sana wanted to ask another _how_ but Lim Nayeon answered faster, “Through the green window.”

“The what?”

“The green window. Where you found my notes, Detective.”

Sana was confused but she still wrote it down. _Green window._

“You left notes to each other?”

“Yes.”

“Why? I mean, it’s quite unique. People usually use chats or phonecalls…”

“Mina doesn’t have smartphone.” Lim Nayeon smiled bitterly and Sana noticed that, “I wanted to talk to her in simpler ways too, but I couldn’t. We kind of… drifted apart after I graduated and most of the times when I came to her house, nobody was there, so I slipped a paper through her window, telling her where and when I wanted to meet her… and that’s how it started. She called it the green window.”

Sana couldn’t hide her confused expression. _What an absolute effort_. Why would Lim Nayeon do that? Harshly, she was rich meanwhile Myoui Mina was poor. They weren’t schoolmates or neighbors. Their families were not related in any way. Sana even started to think that Myoui Mina was also Lim Nayeon’s only friend, not _just_ the other way around.

But Sana decided not to ask.

“Green window. Okay.” She tapped her pen to the back of her other hand, “The paper that I found, when did you put it there? During the past investigation, we did several crime scene scans and we didn’t find anything there, including in the window. So… we assumed you put it there after the crime scene scans. Is that true?”

“I… I had a trip with the art major club some time ago. I put it before the trip and picked it again after the trip.”

“Trip? Art club? You’re in art club?”

“Yes, Detective. We had a trip to Daegu.”

_Art club. Daegu trip._

“Myoui Mina is arrested, though? I mean… she’s clearly not home. Why did you…” Sana left her sentence hanging and ended it with a shrug.

Lim Nayeon pulled both hands to her lap again. It was when Sana realized none of them had touched the tea. Sana mentally slapped herself for forgetting it. She eyed Lim Nayeon, who was back in being silent and looking down, avoiding Sana’s eyes. Sana felt like if she had a little better hearing, she’d hear Lim Nayeon’s super loud heartbeat echoing in the small interrogation room.

The girl was mad nervous and Sana kind of felt bad. She wanted to use her chance and grasped her cup of tea, “Umm… Miss Lim, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. You don’t have to be so tense but I know being in here itself it’s already… nerve-wracking. You can drink the tea, though. It might help you loosen up a bit.”

But Lim Nayeon still stayed away from the cup of tea. Even when Sana purposely drank hers to make the girl do the same, it didn’t work.

“I don’t know,”

Lim Nayeon suddenly said that and Sana was confused for a second before she remembered her last question.

“I just… I wanted to visit her but I couldn’t.” The girl mumbled, still looking down, “I didn’t know what I was thinking that time and right after the trip I came back to just take it because I know it was useless. I really don’t know why, Detective.”

“So you just want to meet her.”

“Yes.”

_But you can’t_. Sana circled the last word she wrote. _Why?_

“She’s not a murderer, Detective.”

When Sana lifted her head from her notes on the desk, Lim Nayeon was staring deeply at her. Sana knew Lim Nayeon would probably say things like that, and at that rate, she didn’t know if she could dismiss it any longer.

_Myoui Mina is not a murderer._

“Why do you think so?”

“I… she won’t do something like that. She’s just… she’s just misunderstood. She doesn’t even steal from anyone, how can she murder, even her own stepfather?” Sana noticed how the girl’s tone changed, “I know her, Detective. And I know she’s not a murderer.”

_Subjective reasons._

“I-I wanted to visit her but I don’t know how--” Sana stopped writing when she heard the girl stuttered, “I don’t even know where she is. It’s been… way too long since we last met and since then I never once heard anything about her I just--”

The girl stopped talking when she realized she was blabbering. Sana kept mum as she reminded herself that Lim Nayeon was different from any other friend Myoui Mina had. Lim Nayeon actually cared about Myoui Mina and her questions probably were a lot of burden for the young girl. Sana didn’t care about the fingerprint anymore. The girl needed the tea.

“Here,” Sana pushed the cup with her pen, “you need this, Miss Lim.”

“No, I’m fine, Detective.” Lim Nayeon shook her head and brushed her hair, it was shoulder-length, the same as Myoui Mina’s, “Thank you.”

“Okay…” Sana decided not to offer again, “it must’ve been tough for you being in here.”

“No, it’s okay.” She forced a smile, “I just want to help Mina.”

“Myoui Mina is fine now. She’s eating well and overall healthy. Do you want to meet her?”

Lim Nayeon quickly shook her head again, “No, Detective.”

Sana frowned, “Why?”

“I just… I just think it will be useless. I mean, I haven’t been there for her during her hard days. I don’t want to suddenly show up and… pretend I’ve been here the whole time. If I visit, it’s just going to remind me again and again of how much of a coward I actually am.”

Sana had lost counted of how many times she was awed at Lim Nayeon’s dedication and effort for Myoui Mina. She wanted to know _why_ Lim Nayeon had that much affection for the alleged homicide culprit but at the same time, she wasn’t even sure if she should ask about it or not. Because basically, Lim Nayeon could be friends with anyone she liked, and it was none of Sana’s business.

An understanding nod was all she gave the girl, “Okay… if that’s what you want.”

And another word was circled on Sana’s notes. _Coward._

-

Lim Nayeon was a good girl. At least that was what Sana concluded after the long interrogation. The girl was obviously having a hard time being in that silent room with Sana, answering questions regarding her friend who was arrested for murder, without anyone knowing because Lim Nayeon told Sana multiple times that she didn’t want anyone, especially her family, to know that she was involved.

Sana later assumed that probably, Lim Nayeon’s family had no idea either of this friendship.

She also learned that Lim Nayeon was an only child, just like Myoui Mina. Both her professor father and lawyer mother were quite busy, so that’s why she joined the art club, because she had a lot of free time, and she really liked art. She also didn’t like to spend much time at home. She went out a lot.

It was raining when Sana, along with Jackson, Youngjae, and the other boys walked Lim Nayeon to her car. Sana was holding the umbrella when both of them walked to the parking lot. She thanked the girl repeatedly and carefully, very carefully asked if Lim Nayeon would cooperate again if the detectives needed her.

The girl timidly nodded. Her eyes were hesitant when she looked up at Sana and said she was willing to be interrogated again but only with Sana. _The other detectives are scary_ , she muttered. Sana laughed, but she said yes.

Lim Nayeon soon left with her car, a white Hyundai Intrado. Sana sighed. She saw gray gloves on the dashboard. She wanted to ask but Lim Nayeon was faster in closing the door. She didn’t have enough reason to ask either. If Lim Nayeon found out that Sana actually had done some research about her way before that, the girl might be unwilling to come again. Sana would find out about those gloves herself.

When she was back in their meeting room, she finally convinced the others that Jackson, Youngjae, and her needed it for themselves so it became theirs for now, she couldn’t stop her sigh because all the two boys did was gushing over how _pretty_ and _cute_ Lim Nayeon was. Sana understood Youngjae because he was still young and all, but Jackson was gross enough because he was way older than the girl, and Sana found it irritating.

“She’s seriously so pretty, even Sana would agree with me. Right?”

Sana looked at Jackson weirdly, “Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I get picky in agreeing with the ones you guys think are pretty. If they’re pretty, then they’re pretty.”

“Just like that governor’s daughter you had a soft spot for?”

“Shut up.”

“No but seriously, she’s so pretty. I felt like it’s been decades since I saw a girl that pretty.” Jackson sighed while Youngjae kept nodding vigorously at him, “And did you guys notice her front teeth? That’s the cutest thing ever!”

“Of course I did. I interrogated her for like, three hours and all you did was watching from a different room. I won. You both lost.” Sana smacked both their heads, “Now enough nonsense, back to work.”

Sana gave Jackson and Youngjae her notes for them to read. She then stood up and started writing on the whiteboard. The information she got from Lim Nayeon might not much but she’d find a connection between them, somehow.

“So she’s on Myoui Mina’s side.” Jackson said, “As expected.”

“Do you think she was being honest, Sunbaenim? Or was her purpose in coming here just to defend her friend, not to tell the truth?”

For the first time ever, Sana knew Youngjae had a point.

“Yes, probably true. Considering the fact that she cares so much about Myoui Mina, it won’t be impossible if her actual purpose is to make us less suspicious at Myoui Mina. She might know she’s a reliable source and we’ll definitely take her seriously. She might take advantage of that. You’re quite smart. I didn’t know that.” Sana patted Youngjae’s head and he grinned, “But still, if you don’t remember, I’ve heard that, _Myoui Mina is not a murderer_ , twice already.”

“Twice?”

“From Lim Nayeon and Park Jihyo, the art teacher. Both of them said the same. Well, not exactly the same, because Lim Nayeon was sure meanwhile Park Jihyo only doubted it. But thinking about it, I’m starting to consider it in our investigation too.”

“So… there’s an option that Myoui Mina might be innocent now?”

“That’d be harder.” Jackson frowned, “We need to find another alleged suspect before we claim her innocence. We’re too far for that.”

“Not that far yet, it’s only a possibility.” Sana sat down again, “I just want us not to ignore it anymore. If in the end we’re heading to more proof of Myoui Mina’s innocence, we can’t back out.”

Jackson still looked skeptical, “Are you sure?”

“Do we have enough time if I want to find out more about Lim Nayeon?”

“Well, yeah sure but why?”

“I just feel like we don’t know about her completely. Like, don’t you find this friendship weird? I thought this rich kind girl befriending a problematic poor girl plot only happens in dramas. Lim Nayeon _really_ cares a lot for Myoui Mina and I really wonder why. Even I started to think that this Lim Nayeon girl is also a loner like Myoui Mina.”

“But she said she’s in the art club.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she has close friends there. Also the gloves. I didn’t ask about the gloves. I wanted to, but she wasn’t wearing them, it’d be weird if I suddenly came up with the question.”

Jackson agreed, “I guess we shouldn’t just rely on things Lim Nayeon said. We have to find out some more ourselves.”

“There’s a lot more to her that might lead us further. She’s too shy or scared to talk to us directly so we’ll have to find out ourselves somehow. She’s still young, after all. This is probably her first time being involved with police and all.” Sana shrugged.

“Yeah, she seems like a nice girl… and pretty too. Did you see that--”

Sana quickly smacked Jackson on his face with a paper before he finished talking. She then told both of them to go and buy some food because she was hungry and they had the rest of the day for them.

-

“Hi there!”

Sana mentally groaned when she heard that voice. Yoo Jungyeon was the first one to greet her that morning. She didn’t forget what day it was, which would be her first time working with Jungyeon’s team for that Busan dead body case, whatever. Sana was still pretty much unwilling but Jungyeon came to her cube with a bag of fresh and warm breads, Sana almost felt her mouth drool at the sight. But she kept her straight, uninterested face at Jungyeon because of course, she had some pride.

“Guess what I bought you!” Jungyeon put the paper bag on Sana’s desk, “Breakfast before work is important, Minatozaki!”

“How thoughtful of you.”

“Of course I am. Trust me, you’ll find no team leader as kind as me, including yourself.”

Sana rolled her eyes, “Such a nice compliment.”

“No, seriously, I know you really don’t pay attention to your meals. You’ve been losing weight a lot. Eat this first for thirty minutes. Then join me and the others at the second floor, room C. Don’t forget to be punctual, big baby.”

Jungyeon ruffled her hair so hard it covered Sana’s face before she left the cube. Sana brushed her hair as she started eating. She would admit that Jungyeon was very caring, despite her annoying antics. Not being a team leader meant that Sana had someone to take care of her, and that was rare. Sana might be cruel at times but she paid more attention to her team members than to herself when she was the leader.

She finished the breads in less than twenty minutes. A little bit willing, because her stomach was full, Sana went to the room C with her notes in hand. Room C was also a meeting room but bigger than the one she was using with Jackson and Youngjae. Sana guessed Jungyeon had a lot of members in her team.

Sana knocked twice and pushed the door open.

“Minatozaki Sana! Come in!”

All of the detective and police officers in that room, except Jungyeon, stood up and bowed at Sana. She recognized some people there. Some looked too young so she guessed they were new, and some looked very unfamiliar, Sana felt like she had never met them before. Sana bowed back slightly and sat down joining them surrounding that round table. Her seat was the nearest to the screen, where Jungyeon was explaining something.

The atmosphere was so serious. Maybe because of Sana.

“Like I said, there’s no need for introduction since you all already know Minatozaki Sana. She will be joining us for this case from now on, so be nice and listen to her because she has so many experiences in this field.” Jungyeon said and the members nodded their heads, “Oh, and I hope for some of you who somehow had lost spirit for this case, you’ll gain it again with Detective Minatozaki Sana being in here.”

Sana was so close to say _how flattering_ at Jungyeon but she only lopsidedly smiled at herself.

“Okay, let’s start reviewing this case.”

Sana turned her seat a little to face the screen as Jungyeon started explaining.

There was a dead body found in a luxurious house in Busan, hence why it was called Busan dead body case. The victim was a well-known prosecutor named Baek Hyukmin, middle-aged, and single. He was found dead in his parents’ house in Busan. He worked in a law firm in Seoul and went back and forth between Busan and Seoul pretty often to visit his parents.

“This luxurious house has three separate houses, and Baek Hyukmin stayed in the far left one. He was found dead there in the morning, with one stab wound on his neck, straight to his pulse, which caused his death. Seeing how the culprit managed to stab him just once, it is assumed that they’re a professional and it’s an organized murder.”

“Any CCTV?” Sana asked.

“The house has none.” Jungyeon turned to her, “There are only the ones in the alleys, and they didn’t catch anything suspicious during the whole day, night, and the next day. The quality is pretty low too. It’s not a very flashy neighborhood.”

Sana nodded her head, “So the culprit might stay behind or hide after they murdered this prosecutor.”

“Yes. Most likely. The neighborhood is quiet at nights. Nobody goes out after ten PM, since it’s mostly older people who live there. If the culprit ran away before morning, the CCTV would’ve caught it easily. But there was none.”

A very well organized murder indeed.

“Did he have any beef with someone or?”

“A lot, actually. He was a prosecutor, he had put many people in behind bars. To say he had issues with someone is an understatement. He had beef with _almost_ everyone in cases he involved in. We’ve looked into his track record, and he was seen as competent and reliable. He had handled too many trials that it’s impossible for us to question them one by one because our time is limited.”

“Is there any trial that stands out?”

“No, they’re all the same. He mostly handled robbery cases. We took samples of it, we found none. In other cases beside robbery too, there was none. We just can’t find anything that can lead us to the culprit.”

Sana crossed her arms. This case really had little to zero hope.

“Anything strange or weird or unusual in this case?”

“Yes, there’s one,” Jungyeon gestured to the operator to move to the next slide, “I don’t know if it was intentional or a mistake, but the culprit left the knife behind. They didn’t pull it out after they stabbed him. And it was pretty… unusual, because it’s not a common knife or blade, but a carving knife.”

Sana frowned, “Carving knife?”

“Yes, here are the pictures.”

Gory pictures such as Baek Hyukmin’s stabbed neck and the knife were seen on the screen. Sana would always be reminded of her young self when she had to hold her urge to vomit seeing things like that.

“Aren’t those knives short?” She asked.

“True and that’s probably why they targeted his neck.”

“I see…”

“It’s not the shortest one. There are various kinds of carving knives and this one is definitely included in the longer ones.”

Sana kept nodding her head. The case was more interesting than she thought. She didn’t hate it that she became curious to solve this dead body thing.

“So, that’s all we’ve figured this far. We thought the knife would bring us closer to the culprit, but there’s still none. Zero. Nothing. It’s basically useless.”

Sana shot Jungyeon an understanding stare before she was back in scribbling in her notes.

“Despite that, we’ll keep working on this case, even if this is not your priority. He’s a well-known figure there, especially among his peers, so we’re being watched and anticipated right now. Let’s do our best together. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Sana looked at the team members and she had to admit that Jungyeon had eyes for picking them. All of them looked enthusiastic and smart. Maybe she’d blend well with this team and the case would end up finished properly.

Just like what she hoped for Myoui Mina.

-

“The knife just doesn’t make sense. Like, I don’t understand, the culprit could disguise themselves so easily and yet they left the knife behind? What’s the purpose of that? I don’t get it. It’s really an organized murder but then they left the knife behind then it’s probably not so that greatly organized either. Well, it’s not like we’ve found something using the knife but still, I’m just so confused…”

Sana just listened as Jungyeon blabbed across her when they were eating lunch in the canteen. Jungyeon ate so carelessly Sana wondered how those juniors could take her seriously. Jungyeon wasn’t as strict as Sana, she was more casual and carefree, but she was also highly respected there like Sana. If Sana were a little bit honest with herself, she’d admit that she wanted to be more like Jungyeon, but her pride just kept preventing her to do so.

There were about five young detectives in the Busan dead body case team. Three of them were even probably Youngjae’s juniors too. Jungyeon specially introduced one female to Sana, saying she liked Sana a lot and was more than happy to work with Sana. Well, flattery wouldn’t get her anywhere since Sana would treat her just as cruel as she treated the others.

The ones she really felt unfamiliar with indeed had never met her before. Those detectives were from Busan. They admitted of knowing about Detective Minatozaki Sana from Seoul, although Sana doubted it. She couldn’t be that famous. If she were, it’d be because of her bad reputation of being very unfriendly.

“Any fingerprint?”

“Of course there isn’t any! If there is, things won’t be this draggy.” Jungyeon sighed, her mouth was still full, “Now you know how desperate I am because of this, right?”

“Yeah, I get it. This case is… kind of absurd to me.” Sana shrugged, “I mean, who stabbed a person using a carving knife? Unless it’s their signature move, or something?”

“Signature move?”

“Like, their characteristic? Their identity? It’s like they’re saying, _hey, it’s me again who murdered this dude_. You know some murderers tend to do that. But I guess we can’t be sure since this isn’t a serial murder. Or not yet…”

Jungyeon looked at her in disbelief, “Why are you saying things like that?!”

Sana had to cringe because Jungyeon’s voice was so loud, it reminded her of Chief.

“Well, we never know. That’s why we better avoid it by finishing this quickly.”

The distressed detective sighed even more, “You know what I hate not being able to find anything in a case?”

Sana just raised her eyebrows.

“It’s that we totally look like idiots in the culprits’ eyes. They’re probably out there, laughing their asses off at us, saying things like, _look at those morons_. It sucks just thinking about it.”

Sana pursed her lips as she nodded in agreement. That was true. She felt like that too sometimes. She hated being outsmarted by those criminals.

“Show me the picture of the knife again.” Sana suddenly asked.

“Huh? But we’re eating.”

“And?” Sana made a face, “Does it still affect you?”

Jungyeon scoffed as she grasped her phone and showed the picture to Sana, “I even have this on my phone. Of course I can’t be affected. It’s you I’m worried about, big baby.”

Sana ignored Jungyeon and examined the picture of the knife. Earlier she noticed a red tape was plastered on its handle. Jungyeon said they hadn’t figured it out yet. She had roamed all the places in Busan and Seoul that could possibly be selling carving knives with red tapes, but they said the original carving knives didn’t have anything plastered on the handles. It must’ve been belonged to someone.

“I got to admit, though,” Sana started again, putting the phone down, “this case is very interesting.”

Jungyeon smirked, “Does that mean I can look forward to working with you because finally you’re pretty much enthusiastic about this?”

“Well, yeah, whatever you say.”

The older one grinned, “Such nice words to hear. When was the last time we worked together, by the way? Was it years ago?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“You know I can always help you too, right?” Jungyeon lowered the volume of her voice, “I heard that homicide case of yours hasn’t finished.”

Sana stopped munching, “Myoui Mina?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“You’re going to help me?”

“Sure. You’re helping me in this Busan dead body case, and I’ll help you with that Myoui Mina homicide case. I won’t be joining the team but if you or Jackson wants me to give a hand or two then why not? What do you think?”

Sana smiled the brightest she did that day, “Sounds like a huge deal.”

Jungyeon chuckled, “You know you love me.”

And Sana really felt like she did, for a fleeting moment that time.

-

“Detective, isn’t it unfair?”

Sana couldn’t believe her ears when Myoui Mina suddenly, out of nowhere, talked more without being asked. It wasn’t like she was mute all the time, but she hardly ever initiated to talk until Sana thought that wouldn’t happen. But apparently, her next visit to the penitentiary that time was different. Myoui Mina seemed in her best mood so far and looked way more relaxed than in their previous meetings.

“Hmm?”

“Isn’t it unfair that you can ask me anything but I can’t?”

And it amused Sana.

Earlier Sana tried to ask about Myoui Mina’s social life. She pretended to know nothing about Lim Nayeon and wanted to know if the girl would mention it, somehow. But Myoui Mina didn’t. She just said she didn’t have any friend. She didn’t like people. She didn’t like going out. She preferred to be alone.

She lied.

It really irritated Sana that she had to pretend to be clueless.

“So you also want to interrogate me?” Sana asked back.

Myoui Mina shrugged, “Maybe.”

“Why?”

“Because you speak Japanese.”

“And does that make you talk more? If someone speaks Japanese to you, you’ll gladly talk to them?”

Another shrug with the same answer, “Maybe.”

Sana smirked. Lim Nayeon spoke Japanese too. _Bingo_.

“Okay, then. You can ask me questions.”

“What is your name?”

“Minatozaki Sana.”

“Are you Japanese?”

“No, I’m Korean.” Sana put her pen down and put both hands on the desk, pushing away the empty lunchboxes after the girl had eaten the foods she brought, “Just like you.”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-four.”

“Are you married?”

“No.”

“Boyfriend?”

“None.”

“Girlfriend?”

“None.”

“Umm…” Myoui Mina fiddled with her long sleeves and Sana raised her eyebrows at her, “Detective Wang?”

“Detective Wang what?”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“What?” Sana couldn’t help but laugh, “What makes you think like that?”

“I don’t know… you two are always together…”

“No, he’s just a colleague. I’m single. I’m not dating anyone right now. Especially not someone from work. That’d be horrible.”

“Why?”

Sana couldn’t believe this criminal sitting across her was asking about her love life.

“Because I don’t like the idea of dating co-workers. If we broke up, we’d lose our work ethic because like it or not, we’d still be seeing each other almost every day at work.”

Myoui Mina just nodded her head.

“Is there anything else?”

“I haven’t… thought about any more questions…”

“Okay, then. You can always ask me anytime.”

Sana crossed her arms and smiled at the girl who suddenly looked shy. Myoui Mina avoided Sana’s eyes as she tapped her fingers slowly on the desk, her growing side bangs covered almost half of her face.

“See,” Sana started again, “it’s not difficult to talk to me. You can ask me anything and I hope it also works the other way around. I’m not going to push you or make things hard for you. I just want you to be honest. I will take your words seriously, and if you’re so sure that what you say is the truth, I’ll look into it. You’re still young, Myoui Mina. You still have a long way to go.”

Probably by letting Myoui Mina to ask anything to her, including her love life, Sana would also gain the girl’s trust to tell her the truth. If she indeed murdered Han Sungwoon, then Sana hoped she would confess. And if she really didn’t, Sana wanted her to just tell everything, and she would search further into it.

The young girl looked up at her and nodded slowly. Sana knew she shouldn’t be fooled but she couldn’t help but wonder,

Was Myoui Mina really a murderer?

****


	4. four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas, everyone!!

There was a girl in front of her cube.

Sana halted her steps, with one hand still holding her phone to her ear and the other one carrying her coat and purse. It was pretty early in the morning and the office was still kind of empty. There were only the front officers and Sana hadn’t seen any of her colleagues. But there was a girl standing by her cube, her back to Sana so she couldn’t see who it was.

“Yeah, just send me an email,”

When Sana continued talking as she resumed her steps to her cube, the girl seemed surprised and quickly turned around. Sana then recognized her. She was that young detective Jungyeon introduced her to, who said she liked Sana and all that flattery. Sadly, Sana couldn’t remember her name. She only nodded her head with a small smile when the girl greeted her with a super deep bow.

“I’ll take care of that. You can come here next weekend.”

Sana put her purse and coat carelessly and when she glanced back, the girl was still there, standing nervously. Sana understood she was waiting for the phone call to end. So Sana gave her a reassuring smile and ended the call.

“Hmm? What do you want?” Sana asked the girl.

“Jungyeon Sunbaenim told me to give you this for breakfast, Sunbaenim.” The girl put the big paper bag she had been carrying the whole time onto Sana’s desk, “She said you must not skip meals anymore.”

Sana nodded her head, “I see. Thank you, umm…”

“Dahyun, Sunbaenim. Kim Dahyun.”

“Right.” Sana smiled wider, “Thank you, Dahyun. Also say my thanks to Jungyeon.”

The young detective named Dahyun smiled so wide it was actually cute, “Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Sana then grasped a piece of bread, it was probably cheese, and took a huge bite of it, while back busying herself with her phone. She thought Dahyun would leave, but the girl stayed there, standing, staring at Sana who was eating.

So Sana stared back at her weirdly as she munched, “Is there anything else?”

“Umm… it’s…”

“What is it?”

“Yesterday Jungyeon Sunbaenim told me and the others about your homicide case, Sunbaenim. And also about the witness who’s a member in an art club.”

Sana put her bread down, “Yes, what about that?”

“It’s not much but…” Dahyun took something from her back pocket, a pamphlet, and she handed it to Sana, “here, Sunbaenim.”

Sana read it. Her eyebrows were instantly raised.

_Art Exhibition._

It was a pamphlet of an art exhibition being held for a week, starting that day. The organizer was Lim Nayeon’s art club.

Sana felt like her mood, which wasn’t even bad in the first place, had been lifted so high she forgot about her breakfast. Awesome. She didn’t need to tiptoe this time. She could just use this exhibition.

“The art club has an annual mini exhibition and I have a friend who regularly visits it… I-I don’t know if it helps but I just thought maybe--”

“This is great. This is really great.” Sana smiled in satisfaction when she slightly saw a glimpse of Lim Nayeon’s name, “You really have a good sense.”

Dahyun tucked her head shyly at the compliment, “I-it’s nothing, Sunbaenim.”

“Thank you so much, really. I didn’t have any idea about this. I guess you already know how much I’m struggling in this case, right?”

“I guess so, Sunbaenim.” Dahyun awkwardly smiled, “So umm… I’ll get going now, Sunbaenim. Have a good morning!”

“Hey, hey, wait.” Sana had to hold her laugh when she stopped the girl who was leaving so quickly, “Come back here. Have you had breakfast?”

“Y-yes?”

“Have you had breakfast?”

Dahyun walked back to her as she shook her head timidly, “No, I haven’t, Sunbaenim.”

“Then which one do you like?” Putting her phone and the pamphlet down, Sana roamed the paper bag, “Chocolate? Cheese? Banana? Wow Jungyeon even bought the pineapple one…”

“N-no, Sunbaenim! They’re yours--”

“Take one.”

“But--”

“Take one, I said. Or do you want two?”

Dahyun couldn’t argue more because basically, it was against a senior’s order. Her fingers fidgeted with one another when she looked down, avoiding Sana’s eyes, and hesitantly grabbed a chocolate bread. Sana chuckled at how cute her junior was.

“There, off you go.” She ruffled Dahyun’s hair softly, “Thank you, Dahyun. See you later.”

Dahyun had her head down when she walked away from Sana’s cube with chocolate bread in her hands. Sana watched her back until she exited the room and couldn’t be seen. Maybe Sana could treat her better than the others. Sana wouldn’t lie, she liked cute juniors.

Shrugging, she went back to the pamphlet. Sana smiled. She’d never thought she’d go to an art exhibition that day.

-

“If she isn’t there, I’m going to leave instantly.”

Sana rolled her eyes at Jackson’s continuous nags. She ended up dragging him to go with her to the art exhibition. Sana might not be the biggest art enthusiast, but she didn’t hate it as much as Jackson did. He really didn’t want to go to _the most boring exhibition ever_ , according to him. But because Sana was well... Minatozaki Sana, Jackson had nothing to say when she basically ordered him to do it.

The theme of the exhibition was _This Love_ and it specifically aimed at couples. It would be weird if Sana went there alone. Besides, if Lim Nayeon was really there and she caught Sana, she might stop helping Sana as the witness of Myoui Mina’s case. Because really, who would want to be constantly spied at?

“You’re not going to be there to meet her. You’re going to cover me up. It’s even better if she’s actually not there so she won’t know about our visit. And before you suggest the same thing over and over again, no, I won’t choose Youngjae over you because I don’t have a time dealing with him goofing around if he sees Lim Nayeon.”

Youngjae was also too young for Sana and she didn’t want to _pretend_ being a couple with someone that young. It would be too awkward and obvious.

Jackson sighed, turning left after the traffic light, “You’re really not going to stop until you figure _everything_ about this girl, are you?”

“Yeah.” Sana’s answer was quick, “You know I don’t trust everything that comes out of a witness’ mouth until I can prove it myself.”

“Right, sure you don’t.”

They arrived at the exhibition a few minutes later. It was held in a middle-sized hall. There were many cars parked and Sana didn’t expect it would be that crowded. As expected, she saw couples here and there and was glad she made the right decision of bringing Jackson with her. She also had pride and didn’t want to embarrass herself by going alone.

When they entered the hall, the decoration was so colorful and dominated by pink. Sana shared the same ambiguous expression with Jackson for a split second before they were back in acting as an art-enthusiast couple. It wasn’t their first time doing that, so Sana had no problem in holding Jackson’s arm as they walked together.

“Hello, there!”

They jumped in surprise when some dude suddenly greeted them. He was one of the organizers there because all of them had nametags and wore all black. Sana smiled back at him as her eyes subtly traveled down to read his name.

 _Mark Tuan_.

“Welcome to This Love art exhibition! Here, you might need this,” The dude named Mark Tuan gave Sana and Jackson a brochure, “if you need something, just call one of us, okay? Enjoy your visit!”

“Yes, thank you.”

Sana and Jackson bowed back a little and they kept watching the Mark Tuan dude when he greeted other visitors with his super friendly manner.

“Such a bright atmosphere.” Sana sighed, “Not relatable.”

“Maybe we should try decorating the office with pink. Wouldn’t it be nice?”

A shrug, “I certainly won’t do that. What’s that brochure for?”

Both of them read the brochure in Jackson’s hands. There was a short introduction of the exhibition, of how it had been held annually since six years ago, and the artists were all the members or former members in the art club. They were all amateurs and the exhibition was like a challenge for them to show their creations. There was a list of the names too. Lim Nayeon was one of them.

It also mentioned that the profit of the exhibition, especially from the auction, would be donated for those in needs. The organizers and the artists would get zero income from the exhibition. Pretty nice. Sana suddenly liked being in there.

“Okay, but how do we find Lim Nayeon’s work?” Jackson handed Sana the brochure, “There are so many paintings here.”

“The brochure doesn’t include the exact works of each artist.” Sana folded the brochure back and held it in her grip, “What else can we do? I don’t want to do it too but we should look at all of them one by one.”

Jackson groaned, “Why can’t we just ask that dude earlier?”

“That’d be too obvious. We’ve just arrived here and suddenly we asked about Lim Nayeon?” Sana dragged Jackson by his arm, “Come on.”

Following the theme, all of the paintings were portraying love. There were some who used such pretty colors, Sana became a little interested. Some were too… artsy until Sana and Jackson had to narrow their eyes to understand what they meant. Both Sana and Jackson were far from expert in art so they had no idea of how to interpret those paintings.

“Too bright, too bright,” Jackson ruffled his hair in frustration as he pulled Sana to get away from a certain colorful painting, “also too explicit.”

Sana cringed at the same one, “Yeah, we’re too innocent for that.”

They felt like they had roamed the whole hall but they found none with Lim Nayeon’s name under it. Sana became doubtful that Lim Nayeon was actually included in this exhibition. Lim Nayeon herself wasn’t present too, even though Sana was sure it wasn’t obligatory of the girl as one of the artists. Sana was getting tired of looking at paintings too because she wasn’t used to it. Jackson certainly was going to nag at her for the rest of the week.

“Only the ones in the corner left,” Sana said, pointing at one spot, “let’s go there and if we find none, we’ll get out of here.”

Jackson held Sana’s hand with a sigh, “Can’t wait.”

It wasn’t as crowded as the ones in the center of the hall, maybe because it was a corner. Sana wondered which paintings were placed there, because people rarely looked at the ones at the corner because they assumed it wouldn’t be as interesting as the others. The paintings there weren’t much different. Jackson laughed and pointed at an absurd painting of basically a topless woman and Sana had to slap his hand real hard because of that.

Only two paintings left, Sana counted. Jackson left Sana behind and walked straight to the exit door, ignoring the two paintings. Sana sighed and followed him a little bit before she took a peek of the paintings and she halted her step.

One of them was different than the others.

“Jackson, Jackson, get back here.”

Jackson ignored her and kept walking, “Ugh, no.”

“Jackson,”

“No.”

“Jackson!”

“What?!”

People around suddenly stared at them when both of them unconsciously raised their voices. Jackson awkwardly cleared his throat and walked back to Sana, holding her hand so people wouldn’t be suspicious.

“Look at that.”

One painting was different. It was painted in black, white, and a little bit of blood red. Other paintings were super colorful but this one was just… dark. Sana looked closer and it portrayed two people hugging each other, but one of them was fading into the air. The setting was too artsy for Sana to interpret but the thing she was certain, it didn’t portray happiness like the others.

There was a quote written on the bottom left. _For you I suffer_.

Sana gaped for a moment. It was in Japanese.

“I know, right?!”

Sana and Jackson who were serious in looking at the painting, jumped in surprise once more as the Mark Tuan dude appeared from nowhere.

“Pardon?”

“This one is amazing, isn’t it?”

Sana looked back at the painting, “Yes… it’s… interesting.”

“Her paintings are always the top when it comes to auctions. Bidders come and fight for her stuffs. And despite overflowing requests from visitors, she ignores them all and sticks to her concept.”

“Concept?”

Mark Tuan smiled proudly, “Dark paintings.”

Sana and Jackson nodded simultaneously.

“But why is it placed here?” Sana then asked, “I mean, you said her paintings are what those bidders come for, why isn’t it placed in the center?”

“I thought the same too!” Mark Tuan replied back in a very enthusiastic manner before he sighed and crossed his arms, “But it’s her request.”

“Request?”

“She asked her paintings to be placed far from the spotlight. I don’t know what she meant by that, but I guess people would still come and notice hers because of the distinct concept.”

Sana and Jackson nodded their heads simultaneously again.

“Just like you guys!”

His enthusiastic mannerism was back and the two detectives in disguise could only smile awkwardly at the bright guy.

“So, you know this one is up for auction by next week. If you’re curious, you can come again, and probably join as bidders!” He slapped Jackson’s arm playfully, “Now I got to jet. See you!”

Sana and Jackson awkwardly smiled as he walked away and soon approached other visitors.

Jackson rubbed his arm, “He’s kind of… weird.”

“Yeah, we think so because we don’t meet people like him every day.” Sana turned back to the painting, “It’s hers.”

She pointed at the nametag under it. _LNY_. Lim Nayeon.

“Can we take a picture? Is it allowed?”

Jackson grasped the brochure in Sana’s hand and unfolded it, “It’s not mentioned here but I haven’t seen anyone actually doing that--”

“Cover me, then.”

The picture of Lim Nayeon’s painting on her phone was all Sana paid attention to during their way back to the office. Jackson unexpectedly didn’t nag at her. He didn’t even talk much and just quietly drove. Both of them shared the same confusion. How coincidental was it, to find one painting they had been looking for, to be the most distinct among them all?

Sana felt like it wouldn’t take long until Lim Nayeon would start messing with her head too.

“Hey,” Sana nudged Jackson’s arm.

“Hmm?”

“Want to meet Myoui Mina?”

-

“Why is Detective Wang here?”

There was a firm frown on Myoui Mina’s face when she saw Jackson outside the room. Sana followed where she was staring, and it looked like Jackson was aware of the stare so he distracted himself by talking to one of the keepers. Myoui Mina didn’t look so happy with Jackson’s visit, despite him being outside. Sana didn’t know what exactly went down during the past investigation, but she assumed everything was bad.

“We’re still working together for your case.” Sana said, but Myoui Mina didn’t look so convinced, “He wants to finish this too.”

The girl stopped staring and looked down to the table, legs swinging under it.

“Why? You don’t like him?”

She shook her head, “It’s not that.”

“Then, why?”

“I don’t trust him.”

Sana pursed her lips in confusion, “Who do you trust, then?”

“Only you, Detective.”

Sana nodded her head as she tried to understand. Maybe the reason for all of Myoui Mina’s lies was because of her lack of trust to the detectives, including Jackson. Maybe by having her trust, Sana could dig more into the actual story of the case. Even though the girl still somehow lied to Sana, it wasn’t impossible for her to someday tell Sana the truth as she gained her trust more.

“You won’t be talking to him anymore, then. You’ll only talk to me.”

The frown was changed to a tired expression, “But you still work with him.”

Sana raised her eyebrows, “Yeah, I work with him because I can’t finish this case alone. It’s all teamwork in our job.”

“Is he a good friend?”

“Well, yeah he is. He’s not bad.”

“What makes you think someone is a good friend, Detective?”

 _Friend_. The painting crossed Sana’s mind again.

She crossed her arms on the table, “Someone is a good friend when they’re fun not only to play with, but also to work with. A good friend is someone who doesn’t just take care of you, but also lets you to take care of them the same way. For me, it has to go both ways. Friends give and take from each other. And that’s a pretty good friendship.”

Myoui Mina only nodded her head. Sana hoped it wouldn’t be too suspicious if she asked back.

“How about you? What makes someone a good friend for you?”

The girl hesitated. Sana waited patiently as Myoui Mina swung her legs even harder under the table, still refusing to look at Sana in the eye. Sana knew Myoui Mina was thinking of Lim Nayeon. And Sana wondered, really wondered why it was so hard for the girl to just talk about Lim Nayeon. No matter how irrelevant it would be, if there were something that caused all of Myoui Mina’s hesitation, Sana would look further into it.

She just couldn’t be left hanging.

“Detective,” Myoui Mina started in a whisper, “wouldn’t it be nice if we have someone who understands us because they’re just like us?”

“Because they’re like you?”

“Yes. They understand because they’re the same. You said it’s a good friendship when it goes both ways. With someone who’s just like me, both of us can understand each other the best, because of how alike we are.”

“Is that a good friend for you?”

A small nod, “Yes, Detective.”

Sana unconsciously sighed. She felt like she might have got fed up of all of these uncertain guessing and figuring. She never got a clear answer or statement from Myoui Mina. She shouldn’t even be sure of her own assumptions because nobody except Myoui Mina knew if she were right or wrong.

“Are you tired?”

Sana looked up at the girl after she asked that. She must’ve sighed loud enough for Myoui Mina to hear.

“Are you tired, Detective?”

Sana didn’t answer straight away. Because honestly, she was. She really was.

“Don’t be.”

It was Sana’s turn to frown. _Don’t be_. It was a weak whisper and Sana saw how the girl’s shoulders sagged. Sana knew she was distracted and it might be obvious to the girl, but she didn’t expect Myoui Mina to say that.

_Don’t be._

Sana pulled both hands to her lap and clenched her fists.

_What do you want me to do?_

-

“Understand,”

Jackson hummed as he tried to find any hidden meaning behind that word. Sana looked at the window in silence. She was really distracted thanks to Lim Nayeon’s painting, and Myoui Mina’s ambiguous statements confused her even more. It wasn’t the first time, but Sana also had no idea why she felt really confused at the moment.

“I think,” Sana started again after a really long silence, “by understand she meant that someone who has the same mindset as her. Like simply when she wants to murder, that someone doesn’t stop her because they understand why she wants to do it, or even worse, they justify her action because they also think it’s understandable.”

Jackson frowned, “Are you saying that Lim Nayeon is somehow _supportive_ of her friend actually _killing_ her own stepfather?”

“We never know.” Sana shrugged, “Lim Nayeon is her only close friend. When she talks about a friend, she’s talking about Lim Nayeon. And to think that Lim Nayeon was basically unbothered all this time knowing her friend committed a crime is… strange to me.”

“Well technically, she really can’t do anything about it. She’s just a young, college girl, with no power or whatsoever even if she wants to help Myoui Mina. Also she mentioned multiple times that she doesn’t want people especially her family to know that she’s involved, didn’t she? She just showed up because we found her and she basically had to.”

“And that’s also strange. I mean, if I were her, I’d want to do nothing but stay the furthest away from my criminal friend. I wouldn’t want anything to do with her again. And not to mention Myoui Mina actually murdered her stepfather, not just a small crime like stealing or something.” Sana argued, “It’s obvious that Lim Nayeon cares so much for Myoui Mina even after she was accused of murder. If that isn’t her understanding Myoui Mina, I don’t know what that is.”

“Well… maybe… she’s just that kind?”

Sana glared at Jackson and punched his arm lightly, “You’re really going to keep defending her because she’s pretty, huh?”

He cringed, “She’s indeed harmless, though? Why are you so suspicious of her?”

“I’m not.” Sana crossed her arms, “It’s not like I accuse her of doing some crime. I’m just trying to link Myoui Mina’s statements to the possibilities of their friendship. Yeah, I know, we can’t guarantee if Myoui Mina was being honest, but don’t forget that we also don’t know if Lim Nayeon was honest too with her statements. Just because she’s pretty doesn’t mean she can’t lie.”

Jackson sighed as he stopped the car in the red light, “I honestly kind of felt bad for her at first, like, she seemed like a really good girl being stuck in a situation where her friend is arrested for murder and all, but to think about it, I guess you’re right. We wouldn’t know that she’s involved if she didn’t show herself up that time.”

Sana nodded her head, “She brought this to herself.”

“Myoui Mina never even talked about her.”

They went silent again after that. Sana closed her eyes for a moment as they drove back to the office. She also had another meeting for that Busan dead body case later that day. She was being unfair by not thinking about that case at all. Her mind was too preoccupied by Myoui Mina, everything else was irrelevant.

“Han Sungwoon,” Sana started again, “you did some research about him, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“How bad did he treat Myoui Mina?”

“I don’t know to what extent, but I assume it wasn’t very good.” Jackson tapped his finger on the steering wheel, “I got to ask his coworkers, they didn’t say anything good about him. He was lazy, harsh, unfriendly and all those bad things. So I concluded that he was like that too at home with his stepdaughter.”

“He was abusive, then.”

“No, he wasn’t. We didn’t find any injury--”

“Not physically, but emotionally.” Sana crossed her arms even tighter, “Being abusive doesn’t always mean hurting physically. There’s also verbal abuse that’s no less dangerous than the physical one. You said yourself that Myoui Mina was a bully in her school, but was there actually a time when she got in a physical fight? There was barely any. She bullies more with her words. She speaks informally, carelessly. Her words can be super ugly at times. And she got that from home, from her stepfather.”

Jackson kept mum as he let her words sink in.

“It wasn’t her who spoke informally to her stepfather, but _he_ was the one who did that to her. She didn’t lie when she said she didn’t know how to speak formally, because she never did. She spoke to her mother in Japanese, and there was no way she’d speak formally in school.” Sana turned to Jackson, “It all made sense to me. She was being emotionally abused by Han Sungwoon.”

Jackson just kept nodding, “That may be the case.”

“But does that really make Myoui Mina a murderer…”

Jackson slightly turned to her with a frown, “Wait, are you suddenly having doubts now?”

Sana bit her lip because she knew her idea of doubting Myoui Mina’s guilt was way too late and they basically had zero proof of Myoui Mina’s innocence.

“I’m just thinking about the possibilities. What did it take for her to murder Han Sungwoon? She has anger issues, I guess that’s for sure, but to the extent of murdering? In her daily life she doesn’t even physically fight with her schoolmates. What happened until she was _that_ triggered to actually murder her stepfather? And it wasn’t like she had it planned. She stayed until the morning. When the police came, she was still there. If she had planned it, she would have run away, don’t you think?”

“But if it weren’t her, then who?”

“I don’t know. Even if I want to, I can’t look for it because we literally have nowhere to go. I just…”

Sana sighed as she had to close her eyes because suddenly, the image of Myoui Mina flashed in her head.

 _Don’t be_. It bothered Sana more than she thought it would.

“Look, everything about this case is assumptions.” Sana stared at Jackson who still had that frown on his face, “We lack witnesses and might be too biased. Hanging onto one side of assumption doesn’t guarantee us being right. We need to think about other possibilities too.”

“And Myoui Mina’s innocence is one of them?”

“Yes.”

Another sigh came from Jackson, “Fine. Let’s consider that. Now what should we do? We took too much time already.”

Sana looked back at the window and she realized it was going to rain soon. She lopsidedly smiled. Even the sky matched her mood. She wasn’t the only gloomy one that day, it seemed.

“I wonder if… if it’s the same for Lim Nayeon.”

_Wouldn’t it be nice if we have someone who understands us because they’re just like us?_

“What?”

“Lim Nayeon’s father, the professor one, or her mother, or both, I wonder if they’re abusive as well. Myoui Mina said something about being the same, but the fact is they’re too different from each other. One is rich and smart, the other one is not, and all those obvious differences. The only thing I can think of is the abusive part. Maybe that’s what she meant? Lim Nayeon might’ve justified Myoui Mina’s murder because she had the same situation too, and found it understandable?”

Jackson made a face, “That’s a pretty fucked up situation but yeah, it makes sense. You seriously make the best assumptions.”

“Let’s find out about Lim Nayeon’s parents. Who knows, maybe we can make her our key witness so that Myoui Mina will finally confess? She’s just a young girl after all. She has her limit in lying.”

Jackson couldn’t agree more, “Right. Let’s do that.”

-

 _The Art Major Club_. Sana thought it was a pretty standard name but it actually consisted of some universities, not just the one Lim Nayeon was attending. She was too curious until she read the pamphlet and brochure again, only to find a website was written on them. She opened it and was impressed at how pretty it looked. Someone must be really good at graphic designing.

The current president of the club was Mark Tuan, the bright guy whom Sana met earlier. Sana didn’t see Lim Nayeon’s name in the club’s committee, but she was put in the _artist_ category. There wasn’t any information about Lim Nayeon in her page, only her name and her works. Sana assumed it depended on each artist’s preferences, because she saw some other artists had a really complete profile, from the name, university, date of birth, and pictures of themselves.

Lim Nayeon’s page didn’t have any of that. Sana didn’t know if she liked or hated that mysterious image Lim Nayeon had.

There was a full history of the artists’ works that were submitted for the annual exhibition. Sana was about to click Lim Nayeon’s, but there was a knock on her cube.

“Sunbaenim,”

It was Youngjae.

“Yes, come in.” Sana lowered her laptop’s screen as Youngjae sat across him.

“It’s about Lim Nayeon’s parents, Sunbaenim.” He gave her some papers, “I found some things, but maybe there are still more.”

Sana eagerly read them.

“Lim Nayeon’s father, Lim Taejoon, is a professor in the medical department in the same university. Her mother, Kim Ryuwon is a lawyer and she works in a law firm in Seoul. Both of them are well known in their own fields. Also it seems like it’s a common knowledge to the university that Lim Nayeon is Lim Taejoon’s daughter, since she’s a lot linked to her father.”

“How so?”

“Lim Taejoon is famous for his researches meanwhile Lim Nayeon is famous for her paintings. The university has an independent journalist organization that writes articles about the whole university, including Lim Taejoon and Lim Nayeon. In most of Lim Nayeon’s articles, there are sentences like, _the daughter of Lim Taejoon_ , referring to the relation between them. It’s the same way in Lim Taejoon’s articles, even though not as often as Lim Nayeon’s.”

“I see.” Sana nodded her head, “Must be suck for her.”

Youngjae just awkwardly laughed.

Sana looked at Lim Taejoon’s picture on the paper. He wasn’t that old but he really looked older than his age. His hair was also turning gray. Maybe it was because of all that stress as a professor in the medical department.

“How about his reputation? He teaches too, right?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim. That, I still can’t exactly figure, but since he’s pretty much famous, I can ask random med students about him and they’d answer straight away without seeing me as suspicious. I did ask some, and it seemed like he wasn’t the most favorable lecturer there. He’s pretty strict, if I must conclude. But they also mentioned that most professors are like that. It’s just he belongs in the scariest ones, I think.”

Sana patted his head rather roughly but still in a playful manner, “You’re really smart. I’ve said this many times, right? No wonder Jackson likes you so much. You’re not so bad, after all.”

He grinned while scratching his head, “It’s nothing, Sunbaenim.”

Youngjae gave Sana the website address of the university’s journalist organization and Sana opened it after he had left. She searched Lim Taejoon’s name first and scrolled through the endless articles, mainly about his researches and achievements as one of the university’s representations. Sana yawned as she stopped in the third page, only to find an article which contained a short interview outside the usual topic.

She opened it.

Lim Taejoon was interviewed and he talked a little bit about his family. Sana scanned the words fast to find anything about Lim Nayeon, and the interview didn’t disappoint her.

_Your daughter, Lim Nayeon, has just had her painting in the Art Exhibition being sold in the most expensive price. What do you think of that?_

Sana skipped the answer about him being proud and all.

_We are still in deep questions, though, about the distinct differences between Lim Nayeon’s field and yours. What is your opinion about it?_

_My daughter just has a different interest. It’s not like she has to follow my steps (laughs). But sometimes I wonder too, of why she decided not to enter medical department when she actually excels in it._

Sana narrowed her eyes.

_So Lim Nayeon actually has potential for medical studies?_

_Absolutely. I teach her everything, every day, all the time. But in the end of the day, it’s her who makes the decision, right?_

Grasping her pen and notes, Sana quickly wrote it down. Things were getting interesting for her. She didn’t know how it went from Myoui Mina to Lim Nayeon. It might sound creepy at times, but Sana liked finding out about people like this. Sana didn’t like it when a witness didn’t give their all in their cooperation. Submitting themselves as a witness meant giving permission for the curious and skeptical detectives to basically dig into who they were. And Sana was one of those detectives.

She just still didn’t know what more she needed to figure out until things actually make some sense.

“Sunbaenim?”

Suddenly Youngjae came back to her cube. Sana looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

“What?”

“Someone is looking for you. Her name is Park Jihyo.”

-

If there were someone Sana had to thank the most for the case, it would be Park Jihyo.

Sana insisted that Park Jihyo wasn’t a witness, so a treatment like she was one, was unnecessary. There was no way Sana would put the teacher inside the interrogation room. It would be very rude of her. Sana also told Youngjae to make a warm cup of tea for her, with a glass, not a small cup for fingerprint purposes. It was raining outside and Park Jihyo was a little bit wet, judging from her shoes and her tainted shirt.

The teacher was smiling politely at Youngjae who was putting the tea on the table when Sana came inside the room she told the boys to prepare for her. It wasn’t a commonly used room, since it was too small for a meeting and too secluded from the others, but it was pretty comfortable. Sana knew Chief slept a lot in there. That was why she wanted it to be cleaned first, and for the couch to be hidden.

Sana bowed deeply to Park Jihyo, which the teacher returned the same. They sat across each other. Sana wanted to start, but Youngjae hadn’t left the room.

“What are you doing?”

Youngjae looked at her with hopeful eyes, “Sunbaenim…”

“No, get out.”

“But--”

“Get out. We’ll talk about this later.”

He held his sigh and nodded his head, “Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Park Jihyo was giggling when Youngjae exited the room. Sana looked at her fascinatingly because nobody was that bright while stepping inside a police station before, let alone meeting Minatozaki Sana for a homicide case.

“Wow Detective, you’re pretty cool.”

It made Sana awkwardly chuckle, “Ah, it’s nothing. He’s my junior, that’s why.”

“I guess I’m just not used seeing female detectives in real life.” Park Jihyo smiled, “I hope I’m not bothering you, though.”

“Oh no, you’re not a bother, not at all. You came all the way through the rain and all,” Sana pushed the tea closer to Park Jihyo, “here, have some tea to warm yourself. We’re indeed not the best in making these but it’s edible, at least.”

Another giggle as Park Jihyo sipped it slowly, “It’s not bad, Detective.”

“So umm… what brings you here? And before you ask, yes, I’m still working on Myoui Mina’s case until now.”

Park Jihyo put the glass down and smiled, “That’s great to know. I thought the case has already… dropped or something.”

Sana smiled back, “No, I’m going to finish it. Is there anything else regarding the case you want to talk about, Miss?”

“It’s not much, but,”

Park Jihyo left her sentence hanging as she grasped her bag and took out some crumpled papers. Sana pushed the glass and her notes away for the teachers to put those down, whatever they were.

“These are Myoui Mina’s assignments in my art class, Detective. I found these last night when I was tidying my work desk.”

Sana unfolded the papers slowly, “Wow, you gathered them all and gave them to me…”

The teacher only smiled, “At first I didn’t notice anything strange but after I looked closer, in some of her assignments, she wrote something in the bottom right of the paper.”

“Something?”

“I think it’s in Japanese.”

Sana frowned, “She wrote in Japanese?”

“Yes, Detective. I can’t read them, so I don’t know what they are.”

“I see…”

Most of the assignments were drawings or failed paintings. Park Jihyo didn’t lie when she said Myoui Mina really wasn’t artsy. She really had little to zero talent in art. But the effort, though, Sana got to admit seeing how crumpled the papers were because of how often Myoui Mina erased her drawings over and over again.

Sana roughly scanned through the assignments and she indeed found some with random Japanese words on the bottom right of each paper. The handwriting was neat, different from the awkward Hiragana handwriting Lim Nayeon had. Sana still remembered it clearly in her head. She ignored the drawing or the painting as she only wanted to see the Japanese writing. And she had to stop when she read a familiar phrase.

_For you I suffer._

Sana’s eyes widened. _That can’t be--_

“Detective?”

Sana quickly looked up and pushed the papers away, “Yes?”

“I was just wondering… if Mina is guilty or not.”

“Well, that…” Sana crossed her arms, “according to the investigation so far, she’s the only one to blame. There’s no other suspected party.”

Park Jihyo was still doubting Myoui Mina’s crime, it was obvious. Sana didn’t know why she was so sure but seeing how she came to give all these assignments to Sana meant that Sana should take her more seriously. Park Jihyo might be not related to the case at all, but if her statements could give more clues to Sana like last time, she would gladly listen to them all.

“You seem like you doubt it so much that she’s guilty.” Sana commented, “I assume that you think she isn’t capable of murder?”

“I know it really can’t help anything but even the naughtiest students in the school never get into such heavy crime like this. I don’t know much about her and her life, but Mina isn’t even included in the so-called naughtiest students, Detective. So to think that she actually committed a murder is… still unbelievable to me.”

Sana pursed her lips. She already knew about that. Teenagers could be naughty but that didn’t mean they _could_ murder. Homicide was a heavy crime. Unless the culprit had some serious mental health problems, there had to be logical reasons behind every murder. They could just throw the alleged suspect with enough evidences to have them punished, but every detective knew it wouldn’t satisfy them if the reasons were unknown.

“I understand your concern, and I’m really going to take it seriously, but I can’t promise anything. We work based on the facts and evidences. Everything is still pointing at Myoui Mina. Even if we think she isn’t capable of murder but if things stay this way and we can’t find anything anymore, then she’s guilty and needs to be punished.”

“Yes, I understand, Detective. I also want to thank you for not giving up on this case. I hope you can finish this in the end.”

A bitter smile, “It’s my job. And I got to thank you a lot for this too. You really helped me and my team a lot. I don’t know how to express my gratitude, Miss.”

Sana didn’t know how she felt when Park Jihyo bid her goodbye after the short talk. She told Youngjae to drive the teacher because apparently, Park Jihyo went there by bus. The talk really didn’t help Sana who was started to think of Myoui Mina’s innocence. Park Jihyo was so sure about it and Sana couldn’t help but to be swayed into that way.

She then remembered about the assignments and those handwritings in Japanese. _For you I suffer_. Sana literally ran back into the room and grasped the papers, ignoring the boys’ greetings, and went back to her cube.

She separated the drawings with the handwritings from the ones without them. There were only five of them. Sana wrote down the phrases on her notes.

_For you I suffer._

_You’re good to my heart._

_To love and hold you always._

_I never wanted anything._

_Everything belongs to you._

The website of the art club was still opened in her laptop. Sana went back to Lim Nayeon’s profile and opened the page of her works that were submitted to the annual exhibition. There were three paintings, the one this year, and the other two from the previous years. Sana looked at each of them.

The first one was the same as what Jackson and her saw earlier. A painting of two figures hugging but one of them was fading into the air.

_For you I suffer._

Sana gave a checkmark on her notes beside the same phrase. She then scrolled down.

The previous year’s exhibition’s theme was _Warmth_. Lim Nayeon’s painting was once again, dark. Sana had to narrow her eyes to look at what it exactly was. It looked like someone had their hand went through their own chest and grasping their own heart, painted in a deep shade of red, with dark background. Sana ignored the ambiguous painting and just quickly read the quote under it.

_You’re good to my heart._

Another checkmark. Sana scrolled down again.

The theme was _Broken_. The painting was much, much darker than the other two. Sana felt really uncomfortable seeing a close up painting of someone, be it a man or a woman, she couldn’t tell, with a strange hand over their face, clawing it upward so the skin was shred, but the figure was grinning with widely opened eyes.

_Everything belongs to you._

Sana quickly closed the page after she gave another checkmark on her notes.

Sighing loudly, Sana dropped her head onto the desk. Great. She somehow figured out that Myoui Mina and Lim Nayeon shared quotes. As much as she was disturbed by the paintings, especially the last one, the shared quotes still had her attention the most. Sana didn’t know what it meant, even those could actually mean nothing at all, but Sana wasn’t so sure if someone like Lim Nayeon who took her arts seriously would put meaningless quotes in her paintings.

One thing she was sure, that those paintings definitely had something to do with Myoui Mina. And they might be even closer than what Sana thought. Myoui Mina and Lim Nayeon probably weren’t just that simple close friends Sana had always suspected. They might be even more than that. Sana realized there was a possibility.

Everything suddenly became way more complicated than they used to be. Sana knew it was after Lim Nayeon came into the picture. She didn’t know why the more she found, the more things confused her. She just wanted to lock both of them inside the same room and made them confess of everything.

She just wanted everything to end quickly.

****


	5. five

Sana didn’t know what was happening until she poured in that much effort, but it better be worth it because she couldn’t stand of how clueless she still was, until that moment.

Jungyeon talked to her after the Busan dead body case meeting the day before, saying she had noticed how gloomy and distracted Sana looked the whole time. As always, Jungyeon didn’t scold her or anything, despite Sana being very unresponsive during the meeting. Instead she asked what was wrong, and Sana realized that was exactly the difference between Jungyeon and her.

So Sana told her everything, starting from how she first knew about Lim Nayeon, her dark paintings, until the shared Japanese quotes. Jungyeon was pretty much disturbed after Sana showed her the paintings in the website. _How could a girl paint like that?_ Sana totally understood what Jungyeon felt.

Both of them then scanned through the whole website and ended up in the _activity_ section. The most recent, after the exhibition, was the Daegu visit. Sana remembered that Lim Nayeon said something about Daegu trip. There were pictures of some of the members, including Lim Nayeon, in a place called _Daegu Art House_. When Sana pointed which one was Lim Nayeon, Jungyeon said she was pretty and Sana reminded her of the paintings so Jungyeon could take her compliment back.

Jungyeon then suggested Sana to go to the place in Daegu. The Busan case team had already planned another crime scene scan the day after, and Daegu was close to Busan, so Sana could juggle them both efficiently, because the trip from Seoul to Busan actually passed by Daegu and Sana could drop off for a moment.

Sana agreed, but she decided to go with her team instead, Jackson and Youngjae.

But when she got into the back seat of the car the next day, there weren’t just the boys inside.

“Hello, Sunbaenim!”

Sana paused for a moment after she closed the door. _What is she--_

_Bring Dubu with you!_

_Dubu?_

_That Kim Dahyun kid._

Right. Jungyeon told her to bring _Dubu_ with her and Sana said yes because the girl had helped her with that art exhibition. Sana just forgot for a moment.

“Yeah, hi.”

“I prepared this for you, Sunbaenim.” Dahyun gave her a lunchbox.

Sana awkwardly accepted it, “Uh, thank you--”

“She gave us lunchboxes too!” Jackson exclaimed from the driver seat and Youngjae followed with a grin as he turned around to face Sana, “Something you’ve never done, Minatozaki Sana!”

Sana ignored him, “You don’t have to, actually.”

“No, it’s fine! It’s my first time being in a trip with you, Sunbaenim.” She said shyly.

“You got one for yourself, right?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim! Of course!”

The drive from Seoul to Daegu might take about three hours so it was a good time for sleep. Sana crossed her arms and threw her head back a little, closed her eyes, but the girl beside her just wouldn’t stop talking.

“Where are we going, Sunbaenim?”

The three other detectives were all Dahyun’s seniors so neither of them knew which one Dahyun was asking to, but Sana assumed it was her.

“Daegu.”

“Wow… it’s been a long time since I last visited Daegu.” Dahyun mumbled, “Is this related to that homicide case, Sunbaenim?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“But I thought it happened in Seoul?”

“It did. It’s just something related to the witness that we’re going to Daegu.”

“Is the witness the one in the art club?”

“Yeah, she is.”

“It’s a she?”

“Yeah, it’s a she.”

“Is she--”

“Sana’s going to chop your head off if you keep asking her like that.” Jackson suddenly said.

Hearing that, Sana opened her eyes instantly and frowned at Jackson.

“What?” Jackson probably saw her through the rear-view mirror.

Sana ignored him again and turned to look at Dahyun, “Don’t listen to him. I won’t chop your head off.”

It made Dahyun giggle.

Sana quickly faced front and closed her eyes again. _God, the girl was so cute._

“How old are you, Dahyun?” Jackson then asked.

“I’m twenty-four, Sunbaenim.”

_Twenty-four_. That was a year younger than Youngjae. And _ten_ years younger than both Sana and Jackson. It made Sana cringe. She wanted to take back those _cute_ compliments she mentally threw at the girl.

“If I met you outside the office, I wouldn’t have thought you were a detective.” Jackson joked but he quickly added, “That’s not a bad thing, though! You just look young. You’re even younger than Youngjae right here.”

Sana only heard Dahyun laugh at that.

“I heard you like Sana?”

“Ah, yes, Sunbaenim…”

“Why? She’s cruel.”

Sana wanted to ignore Jackson again but Youngjae’s small laughter made her glare so hard at the front seats.

“See? She glares like that every time.”

A sigh, “Can you all shut up? I’m trying to sleep here.”

Sana knew she won when Jackson pursed his lips and resumed driving without any word left. Dahyun was shrinking at her cold tone but Sana ignored her as well. She just wanted a nice sleep. She had been lacking sleep since forever, especially after Myoui Mina’s case. Even her bed couldn’t make her sleep better.

It felt like thirty minutes until Sana gave up because she just couldn’t sleep. With another sigh, she rubbed her forehead with her fingers. She peeked at her watch and it was actually less than twenty minutes since she closed her eyes.

“You should’ve sat here beside me.”

Sana looked questioningly at Jackson until she realized both Youngjae and Dahyun had already dozed off. Sana saw how Dahyun slept with her arms hugging her backpack on her lap. She was still using a backpack. _Cute_.

“I think you scared her.”

“She should get used to it.”

“I wonder why juniors like you so much.”

“It’s because they’ve never worked with me before. Once they did, they’d stop liking me.”

Jackson smiled, “Whatever you say.”

Sana hugged herself tighter, sighing at how heavy her eyes were as she bent down to bump her forehead onto the seat in front of hers, another pair of shoes caught her attention. Dahyun wore purple sneakers. It looked bigger than her actual foot size because of the obvious gap between the shoes and her ankles. Sana just shook her head in disbelief seeing shoes that bright as she sat up straight again.

“Do you think this will work out?” Jackson suddenly asked.

“What?”

“This. Us going to Daegu. Do you think we will find anything?”

Sana looked at the window, “I honestly don’t know what I’m looking for anymore. The more I know, the more confused I become. But at the same time I also don’t know what to do with what I’ve figured. It’s like a dead end, you know? Do I even make sense?”

“Well, yeah, kind of. But at least you’re going somewhere. Unlike me.”

Sana frowned as she turned to Jackson, “What?”

He shrugged, “When it was just me and the boys, we couldn’t find anything. It’s you who did everything.”

“What do you mean I did everything? We’re working together, Jackson.”

“Yeah, but things finally started making some sense after you joined. I mean, if I didn’t ask you that time, Myoui Mina would’ve been in jail by now.”

Sana still looked confused.

He added, “I wouldn’t continue this case like what you’re doing now. I didn’t have that much patience and precise. It’s all in you.”

“Is this because I got mad at you that time?”

Jackson lopsidedly smiled.

“That’s--” Sana bit her lip, “that was just an outrage, okay? I didn’t mean anything. I was just angry because… yeah, reasons. But that doesn’t mean it’s only me who’s been doing this. Like I said, we’re working together. It’s not just me, or just you, it’s us, okay? God, why do I get all cheesy like this in a sudden.”

Jackson just chuckled.

“Give yourself some credit. Also Youngjae too. He’s been proving himself that he’s smart. I now understand why you like him so much.”

A nod, “Right.”

Sana cringed, “No, seriously, what’s with all this? You’re acting weird, Jackson. Is there anything you want to say to me?”

“I just want to thank you, okay?” He was cringing too and Sana almost laughed at how awkward they were, “Without you, we wouldn’t make it this far. I didn’t take this case seriously too but because of you I realized that I shouldn’t be like that anymore. So, uh… yeah, thank you, I guess? God, this is so strange.”

Sana smiled, “Okay, _you’re welcome_ , I guess? You’re so awkward, it’s cringe-worthy. And you wonder why you’re single.”

“Hey, look who’s talking! At least I make some efforts, unlike you who spent all day all night in your cube.”

“It’s called _working_. Besides, I have nowhere else to go. I also have to--”

Something suddenly fell on her left shoulder and Sana was startled for a moment before she realized it was Dahyun. The girl was still sleeping, her head on Sana’s shoulder. Sana wanted to push the girl away, because of course her shoulder wasn’t a pillow, but she stopped until her hand was awkwardly floating in the air above the girl’s. Sana paused seeing the distinct skin tone difference. Dahyun’s skin was very pale.

Jackson whistled, “Ay, look at that. Just in time as we’re talking about dating and all.”

Sana rolled her eyes but she didn’t move. She pulled her own hand slowly back onto her lap.

“If it were Youngjae, I bet you would smack his head real hard.”

“It’d be exactly the same if it were you too. Shut up.”

Jackson turned serious again, “Really, you should find someone, Sana. Not saying it’s obligatory for you or what but, you know, having someone by your side is better than having no one at all. The feeling of coming home to someone is pretty amazing, if I must say.”

Sana made a face. The talk about her almost nonexistent love life wasn’t really her favorite.

“You sound like my mom. Stop that.”

Jackson just smirked at her, “Oh well. Looks like someone isn’t getting any sleep until Daegu, am I right?”

Sana gave Jackson another eye roll as she turned back to the window. It wasn’t even noon but the sky was already turning dark. It was a perfect weather for a nap. But Sana knew Jackson was right. She wouldn’t be getting any sleep with this girl resting comfortably by her side. Sana didn’t know if she liked or hated it.

-

“Sunbaenim, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Sana looked helplessly at Jackson and Youngjae but both of them, Jackson actually, just shrugged at her with his smug face, meanwhile Youngjae was having a hard time in holding his laugh. They had arrived in Daegu, and when Dahyun woke up, her head was still on Sana’s shoulder and the latter was eyeing her with the not-so-friendly stare. It didn’t help that until they got out of the car, Sana kept massaging her sore shoulder until Dahyun ended up apologizing nonstop as if she had done something very despicable.

And Sana really didn’t know what to do at that excessive apology.

“I’m sorry! I won’t do that again, I promise! I’m sorry, Sunbaenim, I’m so--”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine.” Sana stared irritatingly at the girl who kept bowing, “I’m fine. That’s enough.”

“I’m sorry, Sunbaenim! I’m really sorry! I should’ve--”

“That’s enough, I said.” Sana held Dahyun’s shoulders and stopped her from bowing, “If you keep doing that I’ll probably get angry for real. Stop it.”

Dahyun nodded hesitantly, “Y-yes, Sunbaenim. I’m sorry--”

“And stop saying sorry.” Sana pulled her hands back, “It’s getting annoying.”

Jackson laughed as he crossed his arms, “Sana has a Samurai on her back. She’s really going chop your head off right now.”

Sana sighed at him but decided to just ignore, “You just have to do what I say, okay?”

Dahyun nodded again, more firm, “Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Sana then looked at the building. The _Daegu Art House_. It really looked like a small house, but Sana was sure it was bigger inside, because of the pictures on the art club’s website showed so. It wasn’t very crowded, so Sana wondered what actually was inside. She had told Jackson and Youngjae to dress more casual, meant that they should tone down their black outfits, but they somehow still looked so… formal and scary.

It was only Dahyun who had the perfect appearance of a college girl. She was the least suspicious among the four of them.

“Tie up your hair.” Sana told Dahyun and the girl did so as she tied her hair in a ponytail.

She really looked like she was around Myoui Mina’s age.

“That’s the place.” Sana pointed at the building, “It’s where the art club members, including my witness, came by in their latest trip before the exhibition. I just want to look around, but I don’t really look like I belong there, same as Youngjae and don’t get me started at Jackson, so, I want you to be the one in disguise the most. I don’t know, act like you’re interested in art or something. Ask as many as you can. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim. I understand.”

“You know how to act right? That we can’t make it obvious we’re actually police officers?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim. I do!”

“Okay. Go on. Lead the way.”

Holding both straps of her backpack, Dahyun strolled her way to the building. They entered it and were greeted by a young woman, maybe around Youngjae’s age, in some kind of a reception table. The place was cozy and warm. It looked like a playground because of the many colors on its walls. A classical music was playing. Sana liked the atmosphere.

“Hello, welcome to Daegu Art House. How can I help you?”

“Yes, hello.” Dahyun grinned at the woman, “My name is Kim Dahyun, and it’s my first time in here.”

The woman’s eyes lit up, “Oh, really?”

“Yes. I heard about this place from The Art Major Club in Seoul.”

“Ah, so you’re from Seoul? Here, please write your name in the guest book.”

Dahyun gladly wrote her name there. When she did so, the woman, or the receptionist, that was how Sana referred her, eyed Sana, Jackson and Youngjae hesitantly. The three of them could only awkwardly avoid her stare. They really didn’t look convincing. Sana had to thank Jungyeon for telling her to take Dahyun for the trip.

“Kim Dahyun.” The woman read the name and Dahyun nodded her head, “What about… umm… your friends over there?”

“Ah, they’re all my older siblings!” Dahyun said, still with a grin, “We’re kind of in a family trip and I insisted to stop by here for a moment. They just want to look around. Right?”

Sana, Jackson and Youngjae nodded simultaneously.

“Okay, then.” The receptionist smiled, “Do you want to take a trip around or do you want to go straight to our products?”

After Dahyun said she wanted a trip around, the receptionist called another woman with the same uniform to take her place as she became the guide for Dahyun and her _older siblings_. Sana followed behind them and listened as the receptionist, or the guide now, started talking about the whole Daegu Art House.

Almost the same like The Art Major Club, Daegu Art House also started as an independent art club which ended up as an art house. They also had members there, who used their skill in art to make products and sell them. A part of the profit would also be donated. The guide also mentioned that they partnered with The Art Major Club some time ago, hence why the visit happened. The members of the Seoul club came by to teach the young members in the Daegu club in their respective fields.

It was a great visit, the guide said. The Seoul club members were nice and friendly.

Sana then turned to Jackson, who was yawning, “Are you tired?”

He sighed, “No, I’m fine. I just hate art. What’s new?”

She threw her arm onto his, “Let’s go there instead.”

They took a different route from Dahyun, Youngjae and the guide. Seeing how the people inside didn’t throw any suspicious glare at them, Sana assumed it was pretty usual for them having guests. There were some small classrooms, like in schools. Sana now understood what the guide meant by teaching. It literally meant teaching. Sana guessed it was a day off because only one or two classrooms actually had students, they were all learning painting.

“In the pictures I saw on the website,” Sana started as they walked through the classrooms, “Lim Nayeon was wearing gloves. Do you think painting needs gloves?”

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t see anyone wearing gloves.”

“So why was she wearing them, then? She came here to teach, right? What did she teach here? What’s her field if it’s not painting?”

Jackson shrugged, “She probably was cutting off grass or something.”

Sana elbowed him, “Do you even know how much those gloves bother me? Like, I just have this feeling that they have… other meanings, you know. They’re suspicious to me and I want to find out but I don’t know how. It’s frustrating.”

Jackson responded by ruffling her hair and Sana sighed at him because of that. People around were staring lovingly at them and Sana knew those looks of people who thought they were dating, so she let go of Jackson’s arm and walked faster ahead of him. They were supposed to be siblings, not a couple.

Sana didn’t know where she was heading, but she ended up re-joining Dahyun and Youngjae at one room, which turned out as the _product area_. The guide was nowhere to be seen so it was only the four of them inside the room.

“Sunbaenim,” Dahyun called her, half-whispering, “did I do well?”

Sana nodded her head, “Yeah, keep doing it.”

Dahyun only grinned.

“Where’s the guide?” Jackson then asked.

“Oh, she’s away for a moment because I asked her about this, Sunbaenim.” Dahyun showed something in her hand to her three seniors, “It’s one of the products and it’s really cute.”

Sana looked at what Dahyun was holding. She recognized it.

She _definitely_ did.

Her eyes widened when she hurriedly took it from Dahyun’s grip. It was a small, flower-shaped handicraft good.

_Penguin and swan._

_My mom said I resemble both._

_A friend gave them to me._

Handicraft goods made from fiberglass. Sana was sure the one in her hand was the same as Myoui Mina’s penguin and swan from that one time. This place was selling handicraft goods. At the same time, they made the products themselves. It meant that they also made these handicraft goods themselves there.

Things started jumbling messily in her head. Sana remembered those penguin and swan. Sana also remembered how Myoui Mina said that a _friend_ gave them to her. Was it Lim Nayeon? Could Lim Nayeon make these goods?

She then looked at Jackson to explain, but the guide suddenly came back.

“Oh, your siblings are all here, Miss Dahyun.”

Sana turned to the guide and saw she was holding a box with a lot of small handicraft goods inside. She put it down on a table and the four detectives in disguise quickly gathered around it. Sana tried to control her expression because she still had to act, before she turned to the guide and asked,

“Are these made of fiberglass?”

The guide nodded, “Yes, that’s right. They’re made of fiberglass.”

“Do you make them yourself?”

“Of course. Every product here is self-made by our members, Miss.”

“The Seoul club members,” Sana tried as much as she could not to sound too rushed, but she didn’t care if she succeeded or not, “during their visit, did they also participate in the making of these?”

The guide seemed confused with the question but she still answered, “Yes. One of them also took part in teaching. She was really good with handicraft arts.”

_She was really good with handicraft arts_.

Sana’s lips quirked upward, “Can you show me the class?”

The guide’s confusion increased even more, “Yes?”

“Please?” Sana knew her tone became scarier, “I’m just curious.”

“Umm… sure. This way, Miss.”

Sana followed the guide immediately. She knew Jackson, Youngjae and Dahyun were clueless but it was impossible for her to explain right away. The flower-shaped handicraft good was still in her hand as she squeezed it so tight in her clenched fist. They were heading to a different section of the building, as the class was placed far from the others.

“Handicraft arts need extra patience and skill, so the atmosphere is a little bit quiet compared to the other art classes.” The guide explained, “Here’s the class, Miss.”

Sana eyed the empty class curiously, “Can I come in?”

“Yes?” The guide now looked skeptical, “What for, if I may ask, Miss?”

Sana was still searching for an excuse when Dahyun surged forward and back hugged her, “My big sister here has a lot of curiosity, that’s why she wandered around by herself earlier. She just wants to look around for a moment there. Who knows, maybe she’ll buy a lot of the handicraft goods, right?”

Jackson and Youngjae nodded with their awkward smiles.

“Okay, then.”

The guide hesitantly unlocked the door and pushed it open. Sana came inside first, followed by the others. The class wasn’t being used, so the tables and chairs were pushed aside, making a huge space in the middle of it. It wasn’t much different from the other classes, though Sana felt like the guide was right about the quietness. There were printed photos on the walls, and Sana, with Dahyun who was still clinging onto her arm, walked further to look closer at the photos.

A photo of the members. Sana moved to the next one. A photo of the making process of the goods. Sana then realized it was sorted by the date, from the oldest to the latest. Sana skipped almost all of them and went straight to the last one. She unconsciously sneered when she saw Lim Nayeon was there.

_What--_

She jumped in surprise when she felt Dahyun suddenly grabbed her arm roughly. She hissed at her junior and was about to scold her before she realized what made Dahyun so surprised.

_My God._

Sana couldn’t believe her eyes.

_Holy shit._

Sana saw Dahyun was covering her mouth with widened eyes and she was sure her expression was the same. She saw the same thing. She recognized the same thing. Her hand was trembling when she put a finger on her lips, telling Dahyun that both of them couldn’t lose their focus yet, which the girl responded with a slight nod. Sana then turned around and gestured Youngjae to come closer.

“Get the guide away from here. Ask her anything, everything, she really can’t stay here for long. Please.” She whispered to Youngjae and he nodded his head.

After Youngjae brought the guide away, albeit a little bit struggling because he pretended he wanted to pee, Jackson closed the door carefully before he walked to Sana and Dahyun.

“What?! What happened?!”

Sana ran both hands to her head. She was so, so confused.

“Look, I am here for Myoui Mina’s case. I want to find something about Lim Nayeon. And right, she’s there,” She pointed at the picture on the wall with Lim Nayeon in it.

Jackson gaped, “Right. You’re right it’s her. She’s wearing gloves too. So she… she makes these goods? But how did you--”

“I don’t know but this is what I came for, right? I came here for Myoui Mina’s case, right?” Sana raised her voice, frustrated.

Jackson was confused, “Y-yeah, right--”

“But then I… I saw those,”

Sana pointed at the desk by the wall, right under the photos. There were knives. _Carving knives_. A lot of them. _With red tapes on their handles_. Each and every knife had it. The sight bothered Sana so much, maybe even more than the photo with Lim Nayeon in it above the desk. Sana held her own hands, she was trembling so much and she couldn’t think straight at all. Everything was a mess in her head.

Sana knew that Jackson recognized them too as his expression matched hers and Dahyun’s. Jackson was once in the Busan dead body case team. He knew about the case.

“Sana, aren’t those--”

“This can’t be.” Sana continued, heart beating so fast as her palms started to sweat, “It’s impossible. I can’t mix up two cases at the same time. They’re different. This is all just coincidence.”

“Sana--”

“Lim Nayeon can’t be involved in Busan case. It’s different, right?”

Jackson took a deep breath as he held her shoulders, “Calm down. You’re just confused. Calm down. Breathe slowly. It’s okay. Breathe.”

Sana realized she was breathing so quickly as if she had just run a marathon. There were cold sweats too on her forehead. She felt Jackson’s hands softly tapped her shoulders and she tried to match her heartbeat with it. She tiredly sighed and looked down to the floor. _It’s okay_. There was nothing wrong. She just figured out more than she had expected. She didn’t know how to handle them all at once.

As her breathing slowed down, Sana let both her shoulders sag.

Jackson asked her again, slowly, “You okay now?”

Sana nodded weakly, hand brushing her hair, “Yeah, sorry. I was just… overwhelmed.”

“Okay.” Jackson pulled his hands back, “Just sit down first. No need to rush.”

Sana sat down on the floor and leaned her back against the wall, sighing once more. Jackson walked to the desk, as he carefully touched the knives and observed one of them. Sana eyed the handicraft good in her hand. She had no idea a simple thing could lead them to find even more clues.

But the knives, though. Sana had never expected it.

“They all have it,” Jackson said, holding up one of the carving knives, “red tapes. They all have red tapes. And if you look closer in these photos of the class’ activities, all the knives they use have red tapes.”

Sana crossed her arms, “I don’t know which one is scarier; these knives and Lim Nayeon being a mere coincidence or… not.”

Jackson turned around to her, “But how did you find these? You knew something from the beginning when you brought us all here. What is it?”

“Yeah I just… remembered some things. It’s kind of complicated.”

“Mind to explain it to us?”

“Yeah, but not here. We’re kind of suspicious now. We need to get out of here first.” Sana realized their situation and she quickly stood up, “Can you please take pictures of that photo of Lim Nayeon and the knives? Also check if there’s more in those… drawers and if yes, check for the red tapes. But don’t take any of them. Just take pictures. And oh, here,” She handed Jackson the flower-shaped good, “buy some of these too. I need them.”

Jackson understood and did as what he was told. Sana then noticed Dahyun was still standing there with her shocked expression and Sana realized it must’ve been her first time dealing with such situation. Sana really felt bad for ignoring her, even though it wasn’t her purpose. If Sana, with tons of experience, could _still_ freak out, it was definitely way worse for Dahyun. And Sana should take care of the girl.

So Sana held her hand and pulled her to walk together, “It’s okay. You did a great job. We’re leaving now.”

-

“Sana is going to scold you if you don’t eat.”

Jackson usually joked with that kind of sentence but even Sana knew that time, it wasn’t a joke. Jackson noticed how Sana kept eyeing the girl across them, sitting beside Youngjae, who still didn’t touch the food, even though her three seniors were already devouring theirs. Sana really was getting ready to scold her.

Dahyun kept her head down, “I’m sorry, Sunbaenim. I’ll eat now.”

Sana didn’t stop staring when Dahyun grasped the spoon and fork hesitantly, putting little bites of food inside her mouth. If she kept going like that, she would finish her late lunch in like, three hours or something.

“I understand you don’t have appetite.” Sana suddenly said, and Dahyun looked up at her in fear, “But after this we’re going to discuss more about murder cases and you’ll be even more disgusted so I want you to at least eat first before it happens. Okay?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

“Good. Eat.”

They stopped by a restaurant because they hadn’t had a proper lunch. They already ate the lunchboxes before they arrived in Daegu because they were hungry, except for Dahyun because she was still sleeping, but sometimes police officers had to eat more because they felt like their energy had been drained out. Sana knew that feeling. She was no longer bothered by those gore murder images in her head. If she felt hungry, then she would eat, no matter how disturbing those images in her head were.

Dahyun just still wasn’t used to it. Sana couldn’t imagine how difficult it must’ve been for Jungyeon to work with young detectives like Dahyun. Even Youngjae annoyed Sana at times. Her patience was nothing like Jungyeon’s.

“Jungyeon has plans to go to Busan again, right?” Sana then asked.

“Yes, Sunbaenim. The team will depart tomorrow from Seoul.”

Sana chewed her food as she mumbled, “If we want to make it fast then they should be here by tonight…”

It took a little bit past thirty minutes for all of them to finish their food. They chose the furthest seats in that restaurant so no one would hear their discussion. Sana knew she had to explain everything, because Youngjae had no idea about the Busan case, and Dahyun was new to Myoui Mina’s. It still baffled her knowing both cases were now… related.

“I’m going to explain it slowly,” Sana started, “and if there’s something you don’t understand, you can ask.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

She first explained about Myoui Mina’s murder case to Dahyun and what the witness, Lim Nayeon, had things to do with it. She added her personal opinion of alleged culprit, victim and witness, and what she wanted to figure out to finish the case. After that she moved to Busan case, explaining it in detail to Youngjae. Both cases seemed so simple and yet none of them was finished yet.

“The reason we all came here to Daegu is because I’m still curious of Lim Nayeon. I feel like she’s not like any other friend because even until now, Myoui Mina never acknowledges her in front of me. I wonder why, what she’s actually hiding. It’s all suspicious to me. And I don’t want to just rely on their statements. They can lie. Culprits can lie. Victims can lie. Witnesses can lie. We can’t trust them all the time.”

Youngjae and Dahyun just nodded their heads.

“Okay, so this,” Sana took one of the handicraft goods from the bag beside her foot, “this is a handicraft good, made of fiberglass. It’s really familiar to me, because Myoui Mina has it.”

“She does?” Jackson frowned.

“Yes. She has two, actually. One is penguin, one is swan. She said a friend gave them to her. And then we found out that Lim Nayeon was in Daegu for this. So, it all makes sense now. Lim Nayeon was the one who gave those penguin and swan to Myoui Mina.”

“Are you sure they’re the same as this?”

“Pretty much. I held them in my hands that time during my visit to the penitentiary. I may need to check but until now I’m sure.”

“So they’re really close friends then, Sunbaenim?” Youngjae asked.

“Yes. You know everything that we’ve figured, including those Japanese quotes I’ve told you earlier, shows that they must be close. It just still doesn’t make sense why Myoui Mina never once mentions Lim Nayeon in front of me, or you, or Jackson. It’s like she’s protecting her. But what for?”

Jackson put both arms on the table and talked to Dahyun, “See, this how our case is like. We find things, but at the same time they’re meaningless and not related to the case. Even if we try to find some correlation, we end up being confused even more.”

Dahyun smiled understandingly, “But why don’t you just push the alleged culprit with those facts, Sunbaenim?”

“She’s kind of stubborn.” Jackson chuckled, “She has everything pointed at her for the murder, and yet she still has the courage to say _no, it wasn’t me_. Let alone these evidences of a mere friendship. She maybe won’t even spare a glance at them and say no right away.”

“Yeah, we’ve given up on that approach. It doesn’t work on her.”

“I see…”

“And then,” Sana continued, “unexpectedly, we also found carving knives there, with red tapes on their handles. As what we all know, Baek Hyukmin, the Busan case’s victim, was stabbed on the neck with a carving knife that also had a red tape. Using the red tape, Jungyeon’s team, including Dahyun, had gone to all places in Busan and Seoul to find it but didn’t find anything because of course carving knives originally don’t have anything in their handles.” Sana turned to Dahyun and the girl nodded, “So finding these knives with red tapes earlier quite freaked me out, honestly.”

“We can’t assume anything since it’s too early and there’s also no correlation with Daegu because the victim had nothing to do with this city. But the thing is,” Jackson tapped his fingers on the table, “I asked the guide earlier about the knives. Youngjae heard it too. She said every knife there had red tapes, plastered on their handles. It’s a sign that they belong to the Daegu club and must be returned after being used.”

“This is kind of absurd, I know, but it never hurts to try. We haven’t compared it. Let’s do it together now.”

Sana already had a picture of Baek Hyukmin’s murder, including the carving knife, on her phone, sent by Jungyeon that one time, and Jackson took pictures of the ones in the Daegu Art House. They compared both pictures by putting the phone side by side on the table. They wanted to see if the red tapes at least, had the same shade.

The four of them went silent. They matched. The red tapes matched.

Sana rubbed her neck tiredly, breathing heavily, “You two, take notes. They match.”

Youngjae and Dahyun hurriedly did so.

Jackson looked at Sana with raised eyebrows and Sana just shrugged back at him, knowing how… _coincidental_ everything was in a sudden. Sana didn’t expect this. She literally never did. Never once in her life she had two different cases being coincidentally related like this. It was confusing. It was very absurd. Lim Nayeon and Baek Hyukmin? Sana still felt like it couldn’t be but she had no choice but to dig further.

“Dahyun, when did the Busan murder happen?”

“In August twelfth, Sunbaenim.”

She nodded her head, “Okay. Now when did… when did the Seoul club visit Daegu? They had a trip here. Lim Nayeon said so and it’s on the website. I don’t remember the dates.”

Youngjae took out his phone to check the website. Sana impatiently waited as he scrolled down his phone only to be silenced once again as he looked at Sana with widened eyes. Sana knew it was another match.

“From August ninth to August fifteenth, Sunbaenim.”

Sana’s lips parted. It was the same for Jackson who was gaping. The four of them had no idea what was happening. Sana was frowning deeply as she crossed her arms to think. Why did they match so much? If it were just coincidence, Sana would be annoyed as hell, but at least it wouldn’t be so bothersome. Sana knew she wouldn’t like it if it turned out wrong but at the same time it also still didn’t make sense because--

_Wait._

“Lim Nayeon’s mother,” Sana suddenly remembered, “Lim Nayeon’s mother is a lawyer. She works in a law firm in Seoul. What law firm? Which law firm? Do you remember?”

Youngjae quickly searched through his thick notes, “Just a moment, Sunbaenim. I’ll find it.”

“What about Baek Hyukmin? He’s a prosecutor but works in a law firm in Seoul?”

“It is written in his profile,” Dahyun was also reading her notes, “but later we found out that he just used to be working there before establishing as a prosecutor later on. He had connections to the law firm and maintained a good relationship with it. It’s called--”

“KJH Group Partners?” Youngjae suddenly cut her off.

Dahyun looked at him in disbelief, “Y-yes… KJH Group Partners.”

Sana still couldn’t believe it, “What? Lim Nayeon’s mother is in the same law firm?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.” Youngjae showed her his notes, “Lim Nayeon’s mother, Kim Ryuwon, is a part of KJH Group Partners since apparently, eleven years ago. She was also appointed as one of the officials seven years ago. She still has that position until now.”

“And Baek Hyukmin?” Sana turned back to Dahyun, “You said he used to work there before becoming a prosecutor, meanwhile Lim Nayeon’s mother started working there eleven years ago. Check if the time matches.”

Sana could see how Dahyun’s hands started trembling when she flipped through the pages of her notes. And when the girl looked up at her, Sana knew they were right again.

“He stopped working there nine years ago, Sunbaenim.”

Jackson and Youngjae had their mouth wide opened at the revelation. Sana grasped both Youngjae and Dahyun’s notes to prove it herself. These were not mere coincidence. Everything they tried to match actually worked. Lim Nayeon was related to Baek Hyukmin. He was one of her mother’s colleagues in that law firm.

It was stated that Baek Hyukmin _maintained a good relationship_ with the law firm so it was possible that whatever relation happened between Lim Nayeon’s mother and him continued after he stopped working there. Having connections with firms basically meant knowing some, or all, of its officials. And Kim Ryuwon was one of KJH Group Partners’ officials since seven years prior. She could be what Baek Hyukmin’s _connection_ actually was.

“I can’t believe this,” Jackson ruffled his own hair.

Sana returned both notes to her juniors, “You two should work together. Write down the correlations we’ve found between Lim Nayeon and Baek Hyukmin. We’ll discuss this with the Busan team later.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

“We’re seriously suspecting Lim Nayeon now?” Jackson asked Sana, “I mean, I know some things match, but really?”

“They’re related in some ways, Jackson. We can’t ignore this.”

“And you think that girl is actually a _murderer_?”

Sana gritted her teeth, “So what do you want us to do? You want to dismiss everything and go _nope, it’s impossible because she’s pretty_ all over again? Well, if you think pretty girls are all innocent with rainbows and unicorns then you do you, I guess.”

“But Sana--”

“We’ll talk later. I’m going to call Jungyeon first.”

Sana stood up from her seat and walked away from the table to the nearest balcony of that restaurant. She ignored Jackson’s loud voice calling for her that did in attracting some people’s attention. She really didn’t have time to argue with Jackson only because Lim Nayeon was _pretty_.

With a deep breath, she then dialed Jungyeon’s number and waited impatiently for the other to pick up. She really needed to discuss everything with Jungyeon. She felt like Jungyeon would know what to do best.

_“Hey, what’s up? Are you in Daegu now? How’s Dubu? Is she doing okay?”_

“Yeah, I’m in Daegu, everything’s fine. Jungyeon, when are you going to go to Busan?”

_“Tomorrow morning. Why?”_

“Can you go now so we can meet there tonight?”

_“What? Why?”_

“Umm,” Sana bit her lip, “you’re the team leader so you make the decision. But I really need to meet you and the rest of the team as soon as possible.”

Jungyeon’s playful tone disappeared straight away, _“Sana, what’s wrong? Aren’t you there for your murder case?”_

“That’s why we need to meet for me to explain it better.” Sana clenched her fist, “Look, we found a potential suspect for the Busan case. It’s somehow related to my murder case. It’s complicated, so please, don’t wait until morning. I’ll be heading to Busan now. Let’s meet there tonight.”

Jungyeon’s answer was fast, _“Okay. I’ll go now. See you later in Busan.”_

“Yeah. Be careful on your way.”

_“You too.”_

With another sigh, Sana hung up. She had always liked that one thing about Jungyeon; she didn’t ask too much. She trusted Sana until the point of no question asked. Sana wondered if she and the others were going to the right direction this time. She could be wrong. She might bring the team down. The thoughts tired her more than usual.

She didn’t realize Jackson was already standing beside her then. She looked up at him and saw his apologetic face.

“I’m sorry. As always, you’re right and I’m wrong. I was just--”

“It’s fine, I understand.” Sana gave him a hesitant smile.

Jackson returned the smile, “Okay. So, what should we do now?”

“Busan. Let’s go to Busan now.”

It started to rain as their ride to Busan began. Sana looked silently at the dark window. Myoui Mina was suddenly in her head. She had been thinking too much about Lim Nayeon and Baek Hyukmin until she ignored Myoui Mina. It was probably the longest time the girl actually left her mind. Sana looked at her lap, at Lim Nayeon’s picture on the paper, and thought of Myoui Mina.

Whatever would happen, Sana definitely wouldn’t leave her main purpose behind. She would bring justice to Myoui Mina, whether the girl was guilty or not.

****


	6. six

The meeting room was either too small, or there were too many people inside.

Sana felt uneasy as her eyes subtly scanned through the crowd of many detectives and police officers. She had never been to Busan for a case before. She had never stepped inside the homicide division of the police station. Working with unfamiliar faces was never truly her thing. She knew there must’ve been more Busan detectives than the Seoul ones but she didn’t expect it to be _that_ many. Or were they there just to watch?

Jungyeon then squeezed her arm slightly with a nod. She wanted Sana to be the one explaining, because Sana was the one who had it clear inside her head.

So Sana did.

She explained in a very fast pace, a sign that she actually didn’t want to do it but she had to anyway, with the help of Youngjae to control the monitor. Sana first explained who Lim Nayeon was and what her relation to Baek Hyukmin was. She also mentioned a bit about Myoui Mina’s case, which _coincidentally_ , Lim Nayeon was a witness in it.

Sana then wrote down important dates on the whiteboard.

_August 9 th – The Art Major Club’s Daegu trip (departure from Seoul)_

_August 12 th – Baek Hyukmin’s death_

_August 14 th – green window paper_

_August 15 th – end of The Art Major Club’s Daegu trip (back to Seoul)_

_August 30 th – Lim Nayeon’s appearance in Myoui Mina’s house (green window paper)_

_September 7 th – Lim Nayeon’s first interrogation_

“Any question?” Sana turned back to the crowd.

Someone raised his arm. Sana nodded her head.

“How did you manage to find these facts, Detective Minatozaki?”

Sana didn’t hesitate to glare straight at him. _Stupid question._

“She’s my _witness_ in my other case. I’ve mentioned it before. If you listened you wouldn’t ask. And if you’re curious about the whole _coincidence_ between the two cases then you’re not alone because obviously, I’m the one who’s confused the most in this room. Is it clear enough, Detective?”

He cowered under her gaze, “Yes, Detective Minatozaki.”

“Any more question?”

There was a short silence before someone hesitantly asked, “What should we do now, Detective?”

Sana looked at Jungyeon who nodded again at her. Sana frowned instantly. Jungyeon was the team leader, and she should’ve been the one giving orders to her team members, not Sana. But Jungyeon just smiled and patted Sana’s arm, telling her to continue. Sana held her sigh and went back to the whiteboard as she gestured Youngjae to move to the next slide.

“This is Lim Nayeon.” She said, pointing to the screen, “Twenty years old, shoulder-length hair, average height, thin body. I want some of you to look back at the CCTV recording to find a glimpse or two of her. Look very closely and don’t miss a thing. Besides that, I need you to look more into the relation between Lim Nayeon, Baek Hyukmin, and Kim Ryuwon. Find more things that can lead us to the motive of the murder, if any. Also, Detective Yoo and I will go for the crime scene scan, so I want the team to split into three to make things faster.”

The crowd nodded their heads simultaneously with some of them took notes hurriedly.

“Okay,” Jungyeon finally spoke up, “you all have heard the plan. Let’s split into three groups. My kids and I will go to the crime scene and Detective Kim,” She called one of them and a dude in their age raised his hand, “you and your kids will take care of the CCTV recording. The rest, find the relation between the three parties. Understand?”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

Jungyeon stood up, “Good. Let’s start now.”

With that the crowd dismissed themselves into the three groups. Sana didn’t understand which _kids_ Jungyeon meant but it seemed like the whole team had already known where each of them belonged. Sana sighed tiredly and rubbed her temple, her eyes heavy. Jungyeon then stood beside her and crossed her arms, looking at the whiteboard.

“I’m not sure with this.” Sana said.

Jungyeon jerked her head to her, “Hmm?”

“Before you ask if I’m sure, the answer is no. I’m not.” Sana put the marker down on the table, “So I’m sorry in advance if I’m wrong.”

Jungyeon threw an arm around her neck, “Hey, this is the furthest we’ve gone during the _whole_ investigation. Did you see that all of the detectives actually showed up just now? They’re excited for this. And I can’t be any happier.”

“Yeah and that actually scares me the most. If I’m wrong, I’m bringing all of you down with me, don’t you think?”

“Well, yeah, true.” Jungyeon chuckled, “But then again, it’s better than not trying at all. You’ve worked hard, Minatozaki. Credit yourself more.”

Sana just lopsidedly smiled.

“Alright, these are my kids.” She then turned around and introduced Sana to her _kids_ , “Here are Jinyoung, Jae and this one you’re the most familiar with, Dubu. They’re coming with us for the crime scene scan.”

Sana slightly nodded when the three kids bowed at her.

“How about your kids? Are they going too, or?”

Sana was confused for a moment before she understood that Jungyeon meant Jackson and Youngjae.

“Umm,” Sana turned to both boys who were sitting on the side of that room, “yeah, they’re coming with us too.”

“Okay, then. Let’s go.”

-

When Sana saw the sun was starting to rise on their way to the crime scene, she then realized she hadn’t got a blink of sleep through the night. It explained the fatigue written all over her juniors’ faces, even Jackson who was not so subtly snoring beside her. Sana wanted to sleep too but her head was too preoccupied by the whole case so she hadn’t thought of it. Jungyeon didn’t seem so tired too, something Sana could actually relate.

The neighborhood where Baek Hyukmin lived was really quiet. The houses were modest and sophisticated, kind of old-styled. The CCTV only reached the alley. There was none inside the houses. Jungyeon said Baek Hyukmin’s parents were already moved to a safer place, so the house was left empty. Yellow police lines greeted them when they arrived in the luxurious house.

The sun was almost up then.

Sana roamed her eyes through the whole house as she stepped inside there. There were three separate houses, surrounded by a wide garden, and a backyard too. There was a pretty tall fence around the house, separating it from the others. The fence was pretty identical to the others so Sana assumed it was the standard of the neighborhood.

“The CCTV can’t reach beyond the fence.” Jungyeon explained, “Not just because it’s taller than where the CCTV is placed, but because of the quality of the CCTV itself. The murder happened at night and the recording was kind of blurry. It really sucks. It’s a total waste of CCTV. We’ve asked for a renewal though, since that camera is way too old.”

“So you really can’t see anything?”

“During the night, yes. Only the obvious movements. But it works better during the day, basically when the sun is up.”

“I see.”

“Okay everyone, gather round!”

They all gathered in the front yard as Jungyeon started to explain the details of the time during the murder day, with the help of her kids. In August 12th, Baek Hyukmin travelled from Seoul to Busan alone and arrived at approximately, 5PM, according to some witnesses, including his parents. He had dinner with both of them and went inside the far left house at 8:30PM. He didn’t come out again until morning.

“The culprit might come in during that time. This neighborhood is indeed quiet, because we’re currently still in the _quiet period_ , that’s how we call it, which is between ten PM to nine AM. Later, you’ll see how this place will become a little crowded and noisy because of the people’s activities. So, it’s a high possibility that no one heard or suspected anything during five PM to eight-thirty PM because it wasn’t so quiet.”

Sana put both hands on her hips as she looked around.

“How about the doors?” Jackson asked, “Weren’t they locked?”

Jungyeon and her kids bitterly chuckled almost simultaneously as the team leader answered, “No door was locked. Only the fence. Stupid move, blame the house owners. They usually lock their house before they sleep. They left it unlocked the whole day.”

Sana shook her head in disbelief, “Stupid move indeed.”

They all then moved inside the far left house. It was indeed luxurious. There were quiet a lot of expensive furniture. Though it was a mess, because police officers were such lazy asses after they did crime scene scans, Sana felt like the house was originally tidy. A police line was plastered, surrounding the aisle between the door and the living room. It was where the body was found.

“There was no sign of robbery. Nothing was taken from this house. They just came to murder. Nothing else.”

“Was there any noise?” Youngjae asked.

“It’s another interesting part.”

Jungyeon grinned as her hand went behind a drawer and turned the lamp on. It was followed by the air conditioner, TV, and the speaker. The house suddenly became pretty loud.

“This is what happened. He came inside, pushed this button for the lamp, and it automatically also turned the air conditioner, TV, and the speaker on. Of course there wasn’t any noise.”

Sana crossed her arms, “Wow, that’s…”

“Amazing, I know. Baek Hyukmin built this house for his parents. This automatic thingy is to make things easier for them, because they’re getting old. It’s just like in hotels. I’m not sure if the culprit is aware of this but it certainly brought luck for them.”

They then moved to the aisle. It was pretty wide since it could fit two adults side by side.

“The body was found here,” Jungyeon continued, “in the morning, around eight AM, by Baek Hyukmin’s father. My assumption is, it happened pretty quickly. He came inside, turned on the lamp, and got murdered straight away. If it happened before ten PM, the culprit might have run away without anyone noticing since it hadn’t entered the quiet period yet. But if it took more than an hour and a half, past ten PM, the culprit might have stayed behind. If they tried to run, there would be noises. People would hear it. And they would’ve got caught. Or at least, noticed.”

“With this kind of quietness,” Sana eyed the stained floor, “there would definitely be noises after ten PM.”

“Exactly.”

“Would a girl like Lim Nayeon consider it all?” Sana then asked, to no one.

“If she were indeed the culprit, she certainly would.” Jungyeon answered with a shrug as she walked away through the aisle, “Jae, take more pictures of this.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

“I heard he had _connections_ to KJH Group Partners.” Sana followed Jungyeon, “Do you know what kind of connection?”

“KJH Group Partners is so, so annoyingly uncooperative. They really think highly of themselves. They suddenly went _we don’t know him_ at Baek Hyukmin when we tried to get to them. I mean, it’s not like we blame them or something, but they act like we do and get angry over it. Such a pain in the ass, really.”

Sana smiled seeing how distressed Jungyeon was, “So, are those officials there a bunch of assholes or something?”

“Correct.”

“Lim Nayeon’s mother is one of them.”

Jungyeon frowned at her, “What?”

“Lim Nayeon’s mother, Kim Ryuwon, works there as one of the officials. She started working there before Baek Hyukmin resigned, so I assume they knew each other since then. I mentioned it in the meeting earlier, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did, but not the _officials_ part. I don’t remember that.”

“Well then, now you know.”

Sana left Jungyeon, who was still frowning, to the living room. The TV was connected to the speaker and Sana was irritated at how loud it was, especially since it was still morning. It surely could cover up any noises happened during the murder. And the fact that Baek Hykmin was stabbed on his neck, Sana was sure he couldn’t even scream.

She then turned around to one boy some steps on her right, one of Jungyeon’s kids that Sana didn’t remember the name.

“Hey,” She called and he quickly turned to her.

“Yes, Sunbaenim?”

“Is the TV always this loud?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s set in that volume, Sunbaenim. It’s always that loud every time it’s turned on.”

“I see.”

The house was indeed made for one person only. A bed was placed right behind the couch in the living room. A bathroom was on its left. And the garage was right beside the house, so it made it easier for Baek Hyukmin to leave with his car. He had a numerous collection of ancient souvenirs too, being placed neatly above his drawers. There was also a small room where he kept his clothes and shoes.

Dahyun was in that room when Sana came in. She didn’t look so nervous like she did the day before, but Sana noticed how tired she seemed like.

“Did he work here?” Sana then asked, stepping inside that room.

“Yes?”

“Did he work here?” Sana repeated, her hands tangled behind her back, “I don’t see any papers, documents, working desk…”

“Oh,” Dahyun finally understood, “he didn’t, Sunbaenim. He never brought any of his work here, since he never stayed for too long, according to his parents.”

Sana nodded her head, “Okay.”

The clothes and shoes were placed carelessly, another proof of how lazy police officers were. It wasn’t obligatory either for them to tidy up the place after the crime scene scan. Sana herself didn’t fix the mess she made in Myoui Mina’s bedroom that time. Though, she most times would think twice if there were people who actually lived in the crime scenes.

“Sunbaenim?”

Sana heard Dahyun’s hesitant voice and she turned around to the girl, “Hmm?”

“A-are you tired, Sunbaenim?”

Sana raised her eyebrows, “What?”

Dahyun then took something from her backpack. A can of warm coffee. Sana had already guessed where it was going as Dahyun extended both hands to give it to her.

“I bought this for you, Sunbaenim.”

Sana eyed the girl silently. First was the lunchbox, now the coffee. Well, Sana had had those juniors who willingly gave her this and that, but that didn’t mean she was used to it. Those things never lasted long. After working with her, those juniors would learn the bad things and in the end, chose to stay away from Sana.

“Um, thanks,” Sana grasped the can hesitatingly, “but you shouldn’t do this anymore.”

“Yes?”

“I mean,” Sana quickly continued when Dahyun’s expression changed, “if you want to buy these… things, you should at least buy one for yourself. Don’t just think about the others. You also look tired. You probably need this too.”

Dahyun just smiled shyly as she held both straps of her backpack, “Yes, Sunbaenim. I understand.”

Sana opened the can, “Want to share?”

“Yes?”

Sana didn’t answer and quickly gulped the coffee until it was half empty. Wiping her lips, she gave it back to Dahyun.

“Drink the rest.”

Dahyun’s eyes widened, “But Sunbae--”

“Drink it. It’s an order.”

It was Dahyun’s turn to hesitate. Sana just smiled seeing her junior as she tapped Dahyun’s shoulder and exited the room. Jungyeon was talking to Jackson and Youngjae in the living room so Sana joined them.

“The house in the middle is where his parents stayed, and where they had dinner together too.” Jungyeon was explaining something, “The one on the far right is more like storage. They keep their unused things there. It’s a quite good place to hide but if that means the culprit had to walk through the middle house, then it’s pretty much impossible. Noises, remember?”

Jackson sighed, “It’s real quiet though, even after the TV is turned on. Noises will be clearly heard during quiet times.”

“So there are two options; the murder happened before ten PM and the culprit ran away, and the murder happened after ten PM so the culprit had to stay behind.” Jungyeon then concluded, “The first option is more possible.”

“How so?”

“Just look at the time,” Jungyeon gestured Dahyun, who had joined them too which Sana didn’t realize, to give her the notes and Dahyun did, “impossible between five PM to eight-thirty PM, also impossible after eight AM in the morning when the body was found. The quiet period is between ten PM to nine AM, so when the body was found, it was still in that period. If we go with the second option, of the culprit staying behind, it’s kind of impossible. They couldn’t run away after ten PM which means they would’ve still been in here at eight AM. Remembering the situation, it’s impossible.”

“Situation?”

“Chaos.” Jungyeon gave Dahyun’s notes back, “Especially before the police arrived, it was very chaotic. Imagine finding a dead body in your house, even worse it’s your own son. Who wouldn’t be hysteric? It woke the neighbors up, making them hoarded into the house uncontrollably. Some just watched like it was a show, but some took it extreme by _scanning_ the house by themselves, trying to find the culprit. It was a total mess. I wasn’t there, but I saw the CCTV. Even it was hard for the police to come through the crowd. Mess.”

“This neighborhood is known to be peaceful, Sunbaenim.” Dahyun continued, “This is the very first murder happened in here. That’s why it shocked everyone.”

Sana sighed. She sometimes forgot how heavy the crime was. Of course murder would shock people. Just because Sana saw it every single day didn’t mean everyone else was used to it like her.

“The culprit would’ve had a real hard time hiding after eight AM. That’s why I say it’s impossible. But then again, who knows?” Jungyeon shrugged.

“The CCTV,” Jackson asked again, “you said you saw the CCTV. Was there any strange things or--”

“There wasn’t any.” Jungyeon shook her head with a scoff, “Before eight AM, everything was quiet, no strange sight or movement. Really, there wasn’t any. The chaos literally happened after eight AM.”

“It makes sense.” Sana crossed her arms, “Jungyeon’s assumption of the first option makes sense. The culprit ran away before ten PM. It was before quiet period, no noise was heard, and it wasn’t caught by the CCTV because the quality sucks during nights, right?”

“Bingo.”

“But wouldn’t CCTV catch them if they ran to the alley?” Youngjae finally looked up from his notes, “I mean, if they didn’t run away through the alley, where else? The CCTV could still catch a glimpse of them in the night if they passed through the alley.”

Jungyeon just playfully ruffled his hair, “And that’s why, kid, we’re all confused.”

There wasn’t anything much to see in that small house. The TV’s volume was still too loud for her liking so Sana wanted to just exit the house for a moment. She went through the back door this time. Maybe there was something she hadn’t seen in the backyard.

The back door was unlocked as Sana pushed it open easily. It didn’t make any noise too, not even a crack or something. There were two small stairs downward before her feet stepped onto the grass. Sana looked around with a sigh. There would be zero noise if the culprit exited through the back door--

_Wait._

Sana saw something in the backyard, on her right, a little closer to the middle house but wasn’t so near either. A trash bin. _A big trash bin_. There was a big trash bin in the backyard. With quick steps, Sana walked closer to it.

“What are you doing here, Sunbaenim?”

Dahyun startled her when she appeared from nowhere. Her junior threw the empty coffee can into the bin before she looked up at Sana with a smile.

“Has this always been here?” Sana asked, tapping the trash bin.

“Yes, it’s been here the whole time. Every house in this neighborhood has each of this. Why, Sunbaenim?”

Sana eyed the trash bin again more carefully. It was placed right in front of the tall fence, which separated Baek Hyukmin’s house to the one behind his. Sana remembered it. She remembered the one in Myoui Mina’s house below the green window. It was how Lim Nayeon put the paper. It was how she--

“There’s a neighbor behind this house, right? Which backyard is right after this fence.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim. What--”

“Get Jungyeon and the rest. I think I found something.”

Dahyun quickly did so, “Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Sana looked up to the fence and to the trash bin. _It should be easy._ Swiftly, Sana put one foot on the bin and pulled herself up with a hand holding the fence. Once she stood up on the bin, she could see the other house behind Baek Hyukmin’s. The fence didn’t have sharp edges. It made it easier for her to actually jump and ended up landing on both feet in another house’s backyard. Sana tapped her foot repeatedly on the grass. It didn’t make any noise. She didn’t make any noise.

_Perfect._

“Minatozaki! Where are you?!”

Sana couldn’t hold her smile when she did the same using the trash bin in the other house and peeked through the fence. Jungyeon and the others stared up at her in disbelief as she proudly stood tall on the trash bin.

“What are you doing there?!”

“Well, what do you think I’m doing?” Sana asked back, still smiling, “I climbed the trash bin and I jumped to this house. I landed on grass and didn’t make any noise. I don’t get caught by CCTV either because it doesn’t reach me, even though it’s morning when the quality is better. Do I make sense? I do, don’t I?”

Jungyeon shook her head, “You’re unbelievable. Where did you even get that idea? And isn’t that dangerous?”

“No, it’s fine. It’s not that tall. I just thought maybe--”

There was suddenly a loud scream that startled Sana and the rest. Holding for dear life onto the fence, Sana turned around and saw an elderly lady staring at her with widened eyes. She really looked scared it actually made Sana feel really bad. Sana then awkwardly smiled with a light bow at the lady before she went back to Jungyeon and the rest.

“Tell the team to look at the CCTV recording of this house during the murder day. I’ll get to you soon because it seems like I got some explaining to do.”

After Jungyeon nodded as an approval, Sana jumped off the bin and started talking to the elderly lady.

-

“Again, I apologize for invading your house--”

“It’s fine, Detective! It’s fine!”

Sana could only smile as the elderly lady shook her hand violently once again after they exited the house. The mention of _detective_ got some people’s attention and Sana wanted nothing to just leave. Instead of being angry, the elderly couple, or the Lee couple, who lived in the house behind Baek Hyukmin, treated her like some important guest. Sana just wanted to apologize and ask one thing or two, but she ended up talking more about herself because of those nonstop questions asked by the elderly couple, especially the lady.

“I need to go now, Ma’am. My team is waiting for me.”

“Ah, really?” The lady held both her hands with eyes full of admiration, “I hope you stay safe and healthy! Don’t forget to eat a lot!”

Sana didn’t understand how those were necessary but she nodded anyways, “Sure, Ma’am. Thank you very much. I have to go now. Have a nice day.”

“Will you visit us again? You haven’t met our son! He rarely comes home but I’ll surely call him in your next visit!”

“Yes?” Sana literally cringed at that, “Well, maybe some time later. I have to finish my job first. Have a nice day, Ma’am, and Sir. Thank you so much for your time.”

“Of course! Make sure to visit us again, Detective!”

Sana kept nodding as she pulled her arms slowly from the lady’s grip before finally walking away from the house. People around were staring at her and that made her feel uneasy. Before taking a turn into an alley, Sana turned around once more to wave back at the Lee couple one last time. Both of them were nice.

Jungyeon and the others were waiting inside the van in front of Baek Hyukmin’s house. Sana went inside with a sigh, rubbing her nape tiredly.

“Almost forty-five minutes.” Jungyeon said, patting her head, “Took you long enough, Minatozaki. What did you talk about there?”

“Yeah, sorry, you all waited for too long. I just wanted to ask them some things but… yeah, I didn’t check the time. Sorry.”

The elderly couple was basically mesmerized by Sana, a female detective they had never seen before. After Sana introduced herself, they insisted of making a cup of tea for her, even asking her many questions about herself, like her age, hometown, and all. Sana, who didn’t have the heart to refuse, answered everything. But when they said they had a son around her age that hadn’t got married, Sana felt like she couldn’t cooperate any longer.

“Woah, it escalated quickly.” Jackson cackled, followed by the others, “So, did you meet the son?”

“No, he isn’t home. He… _rarely gets home_ , that’s what the lady said. They only live there with each other.”

“And there goes your chance to end your single life…”

Sana glared at Jackson, “Shut up.”

Jungyeon laughed along before she turned serious again, “What else did you ask them?”

“About Baek Hyukmin; they didn’t know him so well. They only talked to his parents, not Baek Hyukmin directly. They only know that he was a prosecutor. He’s not that much well known in this neighborhood. It’s understandable because he basically didn’t live here. And about their house; they also usually lock the doors and fence before they sleep. Not much difference.” Sana read the notes in her phone, “During August twelfth they didn’t see or hear anything suspicious. Also in August thirteenth when the body was found, they felt like nothing was strange in their house. Though, they admitted of having minor hearing problems because of their age. So there’s that.”

“I see. People in this neighborhood have almost the exact same habits. If Baek Hyukmin’s parents do this, then it’s almost guaranteed everyone else does that too. Good job, Minatozaki.” Jungyeon patted her head once more as she handed cheese bread to her, “Here, have some decent food before you collapse.”

Sana smiled. She really needed it.

“Jinyoung, how are the other teams doing?”

“They haven’t informed anything, Sunbaenim. They’re still in the work, they said.”

“Okay. Make sure for the CCTV team to pay attention to the house number sixty-two, behind Baek Hyukmin’s. There are only two elderly who live there. Make sure about it.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

“Good.” Jungyeon then moved to another junior behind the steering wheel, “Jae, let’s find somewhere to eat first. After that we’ll go back to the office.”

-

They barely finished their food when Jungyeon’s phone rang and Detective Kim said _we found her_ from the other line. Sana could feel her palms sweating as they all ran to the meeting room in the police office. Jungyeon hurriedly sat down on the seat in front of the computer with Sana bending down behind her.

“As what you’ve told us, we’ve looked to the recording of house number sixty-two during August twelfth and thirteenth. We also checked our database of who the people inside the house are; Lee Jungwon, his wife Kim Heemyung, and their son Lee Haewon.” Detective Kim explained, “But there’s something strange in that house in both days of murder.”

_August 12 th, 5:35PM_

It wasn’t much different than the CCTV recordings of the alley to Baek Hyukmin’s house, since the fences were identical. Because the CCTV couldn’t reach beyond the fence, they could only see the recording of the alley. Some people were passing by, there was nothing unusual.

But Sana thought too soon.

“Here,”

Detective Kim paused the video. Sana could see it. A girl, wearing a gray jumper and jeans, with both hands on the jumper’s pocket, walked through the alley. Detective Kim then resumed the video, and it was seen clearly how the girl stopped by the house number 62 and casually opened the fence from the outside, before coming inside and became unseen. Sana saw it clearly. She was wearing gloves. _Gray gloves_.

Jungyeon replayed the video again to zoom in the girl’s face. She was wearing mask and a cap. But Sana recognized those eyes. And the way she walked. Sana recognized her. _Lim Nayeon_.

_My God, it was you._

“It’s her, Detective Yoo. She didn’t come out again for the rest of the day.”

Sana was right. The house only had an elderly couple with their son who rarely came home. There was no mention of a young girl living in there. Though the elderly couple said there was nothing strange in August 12th and 13th, they also admitted of having _minor hearing problems_ and that’s exactly what their _problem_ was _._ Sana bit her lip, suddenly feeling uneasy knowing that Lim Nayeon was in _there_ with the Lee couple the whole time.

“What about the next day?” Jungyeon asked again.

Detective Kim nodded his head and played another video.

_August 13 th, 8:21AM_

People were running through the same direction. Sana knew where they were heading; to Baek Hyukmin’s house. Suddenly everyone from each house in that alley came out and started running. They all looked clueless as they told each other of what was happening that time. Sana kept her eyes on the fence of house number 62. Fifteen seconds passed, and the Lee couple came into sight.

“Lee Jungwon and Kim Heemyung came out of their house,” Detective Kim pointed at the screen with his pen, “now I’ll fast-forward it a bit.”

_August 13 th, 8:33AM_

It was still a little crowded but not as severe. There were some people who walked through the alley. Sana counted the seconds passed in her head. And when it reached seven, the fence of house number 62 was opened from the inside.

And _she_ came out.

“It’s her again, Detective Yoo.”

With the same gray jumper, jeans, mask, cap, and _gloves_ Lim Nayeon walked out from the house. Sana watched in disbelief as Lim Nayeon joined the crowd and followed where they went, to the same direction, _camouflaging_ as one of them. It happened in span of seconds and Lim Nayeon, again, went out of sight.

Sana’s mouth was agape and she was sure it was the same for the others.

“She’s also seen in the CCTV recording in Baek Hyukmin’s alley.” Detective Kim played another different video, the crazy crowd in front of Baek Hyukmin’s house, and zoomed in to one particular person caught in there, “She was here, Detective.”

It really made Sana uncomfortable. It was her very first time being fooled by a criminal even _after_ meeting them in person. She looked over at Jackson and Youngjae. She saw how both of them mirrored her solemn expression. Sana couldn’t understand it. She didn’t expect everything to go _this_ way.

Or more like, she didn’t expect Lim Nayeon to be a _murderer_.

Different from Sana, Jackson and Youngjae, Jungyeon was amused, “So she joined the crowd. Unbelievable. What a cunning little shit.”

“She kept staying until the police arrived.” Detective Kim continued, “She finally left fifteen minutes after the police brought Baek Hyukmin’s body with them, or when the crowd started dismissing themselves. We assumed it’s because she didn’t want to look suspicious. We caught her car too. She parked really far from the house.”

Sana crossed her arms as she saw the video of Lim Nayeon entering her silver Chevrolet Captiva and left with it. She used a different car because all Sana remembered was the white Hyundai Intrado. But then again she also remembered Park Jihyo’s _she didn’t always use the same car. The one I remember the most is a black sedan._

Rich girl was rich.

“She headed back to Daegu after that. We can confirm this since her car was seen in the highway during this particular hour. We’ve also checked the license plate and it’s indeed legally listed under her name; Lim Nayeon.”

“She has a lot of them.” Sana suddenly said, “Cars, I mean. I don’t know how many, but she also has a white Hyundai Intrado and a black sedan. Can you please check how many cars are listed under her name, and what they are?”

“Sure, Detective Minatozaki. We will.”

“Also, how about the other team? We need to know more about the connection between Lim Nayeon and Baek Hyukmin to conclude the murder’s motive.”

“From what I’ve heard, it seems like Baek Hyukmin and Kim Ryuwon were indeed acquainted in a way. In some of Kim Ryuwon’s cases, where her client was a culprit, one of the prosecutors in charge for the trials was Baek Hyukmin.” Detective Kim explained, “We’re still trying to track down these particular ex-clients, Detective Minatozaki.”

“So they really have worked together?” Sana frowned, “One as a lawyer and one as a prosecutor?”

“Yes, that’s right. In about, five to seven cases. We still need more information.”

Sana nodded, “Okay. So they’re indeed related?”

Detective Kim nodded again, “Yes, Detective Minatozaki.”

Sana could only repeatedly nod her head as she backed away from the crowd of the detectives for a little. She heard some small cheers, probably from Jungyeon’s team, because _finally_ they found a suspect. She wanted to cheer to, she usually was the proudest during cheers, but she couldn’t. Her mind hand wandered far. She thought of Lim Nayeon, thought of the knife, thought of the blood, thought of _Myoui Mina_.

“Okay guys,” Jungyeon still sounded so amused, “you can take a break for a while until afternoon before we discuss this again. I need some time with Detective Minatozaki. You all may leave now. Oh, and treat these two as well!” She pushed Jackson and Youngjae to join her team, “They’ve helped us a lot.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

There were loud chats and deep bows exchanged when Jungyeon’s team exited the room. Sana got so, so much praises that she dismissed politely. She waited until it died down, and finally let out a loud sigh as both her shoulders sagged. She sat down on a desk and swung her legs carelessly. Her shoes were really dirty.

“Here,” Jungyeon gave her a can of coke, “you’ve worked hard, Minatozaki.”

Sana smiled. She had always liked those words.

“Yeah, you too.”

Jungyeon sat down beside Sana on the desk, sipping her own can, “You don’t seem happy, though? Actually none of you, Jackson and Youngjae looks happy. What’s bothering you guys? Or is it too… surprising for you?”

“Well, yeah, kind of. For those two boys, it’s because Lim Nayeon is _pretty_ that they still find it hard to believe.” Sana scoffed, “So silly.”

A chuckle, “They’re not wrong, though. Lim Nayeon is indeed pretty.”

Sana just nodded. She agreed as well.

“How about you, then? What’s bothering you so much?” Jungyeon nudged her arm, “You were the one who found her in the first place. And you were right all along, even for that trash bin theory, you were right. Like, how did you even think of that? I’ve been there for so many times but not even once I thought about the trash bin. Or am I just stupid…”

It made Sana laugh, “What are you talking about? You’re the genius Yoo Jungyeon, credit yourself more.”

Jungyeon just shrugged, “Literally only you who uses that nickname.”

Sana shrugged back as she looked down at the can in her hands, “Remember the green window paper between Lim Nayeon and Myoui Mina?”

“Yeah, why?”

“That’s how she does it. Lim Nayeon. She puts the paper in Myoui Mina’s window by standing on a trash bin placed right under the window. It’s the same for this case.”

“Ah… I see.” Jungyeon put her empty can away before wiping her hands onto her own jeans, “It’s what’s in your mind, right? You’ve been thinking about Myoui Mina’s case the whole time, am I right?”

“Yeah.” Sana’s answer was quick, “That’s all in my head.”

Sana gulped the coke one last time to empty it before she put it right beside Jungyeon’s.

“I don’t get it.” She continued, “Like, how do you comprehend your two, separate, different cases, suddenly being related like this? Lim Nayeon is my witness. I’ve met her before, in person. I even _interrogated_ her but I didn’t see anything suspicious about her, like at all. Sure, I was skeptical, but I didn’t expect… this. Like… ugh, you know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re still confused, just like Jackson and Youngjae. And I don’t blame you guys, not at all.” Jungyeon crossed her arms, “Though now we’ve mentioned it, I’m curious of how you’ll handle Myoui Mina’s case after this. I mean, Lim Nayeon is my suspect and yet she’s still your witness.”

Sana shook her head with a bitter laugh, “Don’t ask me. I have no idea.”

“But tell me honestly,” Jungyeon turned to her.

Sana raised her eyebrows.

“Are you even sure that Myoui Mina did it?”

Sana stared at her blankly. Silently. And Jungyeon knew it.

“You’re not. If you were, you would still insist for that _confession_ since a long time ago.” Jungyeon smiled, “Jackson told me about his attempt, which ended up dragging you to the case. You’re never sure of her crime, Minatozaki. Your doubts are the ones that keep you going all this time. You do realize that, don’t you?”

Sana looked back down again. Jungyeon was right.

“And if I were you, I’m sure I would suspect Lim Nayeon for that, especially after this.”

Sana bit her lip. Jungyeon was right again. She admitted of suspecting Lim Nayeon for Myoui Mina’s case.

“It’s normal, and it never hurts to try. You said that yourself. I got some quotes from you.” Jungyeon chuckled a little, “I mean, if you doubt it so much then why don’t you just try to prove Myoui Mina’s innocence instead of looking for more… evidences for her crime. What are you looking for anyway, everything is already pointing at her. Right?”

“But how can I do that? I have _nothing_ to even start.”

“You have a potential suspect; Lim Nayeon. You’re free to dig into her, through this Busan case, since she’s already a suspect in this.” Jungyeon threw her arm around Sana’s neck, “You can do both cases at the same time. Since you have limits in your case because Lim Nayeon’s status there is just a witness, you can use Busan case to dig everything out of her. Then maybe you’ll find something to answer all of your doubts.”

Sana was still unsure.

“Look, you actually did the same before. You did both cases at the same time. Daegu, remember? It was incredible how you could put the pieces you got from both cases together. The handicraft goods literally brought you to the carving knives, right?”

“So you think it will work?”

“No, I don’t think like that. I just think _why not?_ And seeing how draggy it’s been, it surely will bother me more if I decide to back out instead of trying.” Jungyeon tapped her shoulder, “Just like what you did in Busan case.”

Sana then stared at Jungyeon with a small smile because no matter how _amazed_ she was with the way Jungyeon talked and cleared her mind, she still didn’t want that pride to crumble down. Jungyeon always knew what to do best. Sana never doubted it. And even if Jungyeon told her to do the most nonsense thing ever, Sana felt like she would comply without any second thought.

“You’ll help me, right?”

“Sure. Just like how you helped me.” Jungyeon’s smile turned into a playful cringe, “Though I feel like I won’t do this much because you literally found everything and I certainly can’t beat you at that.”

Sana laughed as she hopped off the desk and pulled Jungyeon with her to go for some fresh air before they resumed the meeting. Sana knew even after Jungyeon cleared all her cloudy thoughts in her head, it wouldn’t last long because Myoui Mina had never wanted to leave her mind for too long.

Myoui Mina. Sana remembered it all. Myoui Mina was all she thought of.

****


	7. seven

It was suddenly clear.

The whole Lim Nayeon, Baek Hyukmin and Kim Ryuwon mess, Sana finally had it clear in her head.

Everything made sense as Sana scrolled back through her notes in her phone to check if she missed a thing or two. Jackson, driving beside her, was anxious as he gripped the steering wheel tightly, fingers tapping it roughly. Youngjae, who usually talked more when he was left with his two seniors, was silent the whole time in the backseat.

They were not speeding through the busy streets of Seoul. They were driving in a normal speed, way behind Jungyeon and the Busan team. Sana didn’t know if Jackson and Youngjae were actually included in Jungyeon’s team or not, but with the way Jungyeon insisted them to come along, she assumed they were.

Sana stopped scrolling when she reached the points she added the night before.

_Baek Hyukmin – Kim Ryuwon = extortion_

The reason why KJH Group Partners refused to cooperate with the police officers regarding Baek Hyukmin’s death was obviously because the _connections_ he had with them included some abuse of powers, such as _extortion_ or Sana preferred to mention it as _blackmail_. When Baek Hyukmin handled trials as one of the prosecutors, he worked together with Kim Ryuwon, the culprits’ lawyer; she _always_ got culprits as her clients, to blackmail them for a huge bunch of money in order for the punishment to be reduced.

They blackmailed those culprits together. The money went to both of them.

It didn’t happen just once or twice. Many times. Many, many times, considering the fact that both Baek Hyukmin and Kim Ryuwon were in their field for so long.

Sana at first thought that those facts were useless, because it had no correlation to Lim Nayeon. What did Lim Nayeon have to do with them? But when the team got a family of an ex-client through a phone call, who willingly shared their experience later in the office, Sana finally understood how it mattered.

Her finger scrolled down again through her notes.

_Baek Hyukmin – Kim Ryuwon = affair_

_Kim Ryuwon – Lim Taejoon = for the show_

The ex-client, who was a culprit in a robbery case a few years back, didn’t come from a wealthy family like the other clients did. The family was blackmailed, forced to pay a huge sum of money for both _prosecutor_ and _lawyer_. If they refused, according to them, the sentence would be made way longer _on purpose_.

_It was all organized_ , they said. _The blackmail was very organized. We couldn’t look for help because everyone wanted the same._

Sana narrowed her eyes.

_Money._

Of course. Everyone wanted money. Maybe more than their own pride.

The family of the client later found out about the affair because the money they sent to both Baek Hyukmin and Kim Ryuwon actually went into one account only. They brought their receipt with them. And they said the _prosecutor_ and the _lawyer_ then went overseas after the trial was finished. Sana had tracked down to two years back. And it was true.

Baek Hyukmin and Kim Ryuwon both went to Malibu in July. Different flights but exactly in the same time period.

Sana scrolled down once more.

_Lim Nayeon = heavily affected_

It was still Sana’s assumption that Lim Nayeon was affected by the whole affair thingy between her mother and Baek Hyukmin. She was an only child. She only had her parents at home. Of course she would notice. So would her father, Lim Taejoon. Lim Nayeon’s family was actually just for a show, since both parents had reputation in their respective fields. If they went through divorce, it would taint the _prestige_ image of the Lim family.

“Would you be the one who handle her?” Jackson suddenly asked, “Like, interrogating her and stuff?”

Sana put her phone down on her lap and crossed her arms, “Why? You want to do it?”

Jackson just side-eyed her.

“No,” Sana chuckled, “she’s arrested for Jungyeon’s case, not ours. She’s not for me to handle.”

“How many witnesses are there?”

“Baek Hyukmin’s parents. That family of Kim Ryuwon’s ex-client. Also of course Lim Taejoon and Kim Ryuwon. And the owners or members in both Art Major Club and Daegu Art House. Maybe there’s more. I’m not sure who else Jungyeon wants.”

“You’re exposing two crimes all at once, you know. Lim Nayeon’s and her mother’s blackmail.”

Sana chortled, “Can’t wait.”

The ride was silent again as they got closer and closer to Cheongdam-dong, where Lim Nayeon and her family lived. Jungyeon probably had arrived there. She promised to call when everything was settled so Sana didn’t have to reach Cheongdam. But Sana knew she wouldn’t listen. She would still go to Cheongdam to mess up Lim family’s house.

“Does this mean both Myoui Mina and Lim Nayeon are murderers? Which is why they’re friends?” Jackson asked again.

Sana shrugged, “Well, what do you think?”

Jackson glanced at her for a moment, “Please don’t say you _still_ insist of suspecting Lim Nayeon for Han Sungwoon’s death.”

Sana smirked. It was indeed a bad idea to share her suspicion to Jackson and Youngjae.

“I have my own argument.”

“And exactly what is that?”

“Remember that one Lim Taejoon interview when he stated that his daughter excelled in medical studies, but decided to go for arts instead?”

He frowned, “Which one?”

“Come on, you remember it.” Sana nudged his arm, “Lim Taejoon said he _taught her everything, every day, all the time_.”

“Ugh, fine. I remember it. And what does that have anything to do with Lim Nayeon as a murderer?”

“It’s easy, don’t you think? I’ve been considering this theory for a while now.” Sana proudly explained, “Baek Hyukmin was stabbed in his neck, straight to his pulse, just once, and died instantly, hence why we thought it was a professional murderer at first. Because how could a young college student, majoring in _art_ , know where exactly his pulse was, and stab it precisely, am I right?”

Jackson frowned.

“Unless she _knew_ where it was.”

Jackson frowned deeper, “What--”

“Lim Nayeon’s father is Lim Taejoon; a medical professor. Even with that fact itself I’m already sure of my theory. And the fact that Lim Taejoon stated himself how he taught Lim Nayeon and all, it adds even more. Human anatomy is probably what Lim Nayeon has for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. She knows where the vein and the artery are, Jackson. It’s not hard to grasp it.”

“Well, yeah, it made sense but--”

“Han Sungwoon was stabbed several times and died due to huge blood loss.” Sana continued, “Five times, to be exact. And if you pay attention to the postmortem, it’s actually quite suspicious. He was stabbed in his small intestine four times and the last one? His liver.”

Jackson kept mum.

“I can dismiss the small intestine ones, because it’s basically the abdomen, it’s nothing special. But the liver? Precisely? How did Myoui Mina do that?”

Youngjae suddenly popped his head in between the front seats, “It’s the cause of his blood loss too, Sunbaenim.”

“Exactly. I discussed this with Jungyeon one time and she pointed it out.” Sana sighed, “If Han Sungwoon was stabbed in just his abdomen, I’ll ignore it. But his liver actually got stabbed. Liver is up here, you know,” Sana put her hand on where she thought her own liver was, “meanwhile intestines are down here.”

“So you really think that Lim Nayeon also planned the murder all along?”

“It’s either she planned it but Myoui Mina had no idea, or it wasn’t planned at all. Like, why would she leave Myoui Mina behind? She wanted her to be blamed? She could’ve made a way better plan than that. She was very smart with her Busan murder. Not to mention the whole situation of Han Sungwoon’s murder was way easier than the Busan one. No CCTV, less neighbors, a lot of noises since Seoul is a busy city, and all. Even if her plan were just half the effort of her Busan one, she could still leave with no trace _with_ Myoui Mina, because I’m sure there’s no way Lim Nayeon would put the blame on her.”

Both Jackson and Youngjae were silent.

“I’m leaning more to the second option; of it wasn’t planned. I highly doubt that she’d leave Myoui Mina behind if she had planned it.”

“Okay,” Jackson sighed, giving in to Sana’s theory, as usual, “since you always make sense, I’ll go with it. Now what should we do with Myoui Mina?”

“Should we tell her that we arrested Lim Nayeon for murder, Sunbaenim?”

“No, no, that’s--”

Sana was cut off by her ringing phone. It was Jungyeon. She quickly picked it up.

“Hey, how’s--”

_“Lim Nayeon isn’t home, nobody is home in Cheongdam.”_ Jungyeon said, in a rush, _“There is only a maid. Don’t go here.”_

“So where--”

_“The maid says Lim Nayeon has her own apartment in Sinchon. I’ll send you the address. Can you go there first? I’m still in Cheongdam and there’s traffic jam here.”_

“Okay. Send me the address. I’ll go there.”

Jungyeon then sent a location of a small apartment building in Sinchon-dong almost immediately. Sana recognized it. She was sure she had been there before.

“Sinchon,” She told Jackson, “let’s go to Sinchon.”

Jackson was fast as he took a quick turn, heading to Sinchon-dong. Sana held her phone tight, eyeing the map. She didn’t like how suddenly she was in charge of arresting Lim Nayeon but at the same time she couldn’t wait of how things would turn out.

-

There was a murder case happened in the same apartment in Sinchon-dong. It was when Sana was a newbie, still wearing her police uniform. The apartment was small and plain, far from luxurious. Mostly college students lived there. And since Lim Nayeon was one herself, Sana didn’t see anything wrong with that. Though she wondered why Lim Nayeon chose this place instead of the more expensive ones.

The front security and some managers still recognized her.

That was why she could reach room number 51 easily.

“Okay, be ready.” Sana told Jackson, Youngjae, the security and the two managers who followed them along.

After all of them nodded their heads, Sana pressed the doorbell.

“Miss Lim Nayeon?” She called, rather loudly, “Miss Lim Nayeon, please open the door. It’s the police. Please open the door. Or else we’ll let ourselves in.”

No answer.

Sana tried again.

“Miss Lim Nayeon, open the door.” Her voice got louder as she pressed the doorbell more roughly, “If you’re inside, please open the door. Miss Lim Nayeon,”

There was still no answer.

“It seems like she isn’t home, Detective.” The security said.

“Did you see her going out, Sir?”

“I didn’t, Detective, but it’s because I’m in the front entrance all the time. There are also back and basement exits.”

“There’s CCTV, right? Can you please look at the CCTV, Sir?” Sana asked to one of the managers.

He nodded and quickly dashed off, “Yes, Detective.”

“You go with him, quick.” Jackson told Youngjae and he did as he was told.

Sana then turned to the other manager, “Can you open the door for me? I need to go inside.”

“Sure, Detective.”

After making sure Lim Nayeon wasn’t home, by pressing the doorbell endlessly, Sana let the manager open the door with the spare key. Jackson got his gun ready as Sana stepped inside ahead of him.

The apartment was dark. All the curtains were closed. It really seemed like Lim Nayeon was away. Jackson sighed.

“Rubber gloves,” Sana reminded Jackson as she put hers on, “we don’t want to leave fingerprints around here, do we.”

With that, Sana turned the light on.

She would be lying if she weren’t taken aback of the sight in front of her.

There were paintings everywhere. Canvasses with paintings on them were being placed carelessly on the floor, on the couch, on the desk, basically everywhere. There were used paint brushes around Sana’s feet. A lot of color tainted the cream-colored couch, mostly red and black. The walls weren’t better too. They looked like they were splashed by colors fiercely. Even in the kitchen. Everything was in colors. Red and black.

Sana took a deep breath as her eyes scanned the mess. _Red and black_. Was there a disaster, or was Lim Nayeon simply _that_ disorganized?

“Don’t touch anything.” Sana said to the security and manager, who were gaping behind her, “Or else there will be fingerprints and you’re going to be involved.”

“Yes, Detective.”

“This is one hell of a mess.” Jackson said, softly kicking a painting near his foot, “And look at these paintings. These are some scary shit.”

“Jackson, tell Jungyeon that Lim Nayeon’s also not here.” Sana carefully walked through the mess, “She had left.”

Sana’s steps were careful as she walked to the living room. She put the canvasses out of her way, ignoring how _disturbing_ the paintings looked like. She had never seen a place this miserable, even worse than what the police usually did in crime scene scans. Was that normal for Lim Nayeon? Everything was in red and black. Sana didn’t see any other color. She narrowed her eyes when Jackson opened the curtain and letting the sun light attack their eyes. The sight of the apartment became worse in Sana’s eyes, if that were even possible.

“Jungyeon Sunbae says she’ll call the office first before confirming to us.” Jackson said, “They’re currently tracking her down.”

Sana just nodded.

“Is that her bathroom?” Jackson then pointed at a door on Sana’s left.

Without answering, Sana walked closer and pushed the door open swiftly.

She let out a gasp at what she saw.

A mirror. She was met with a mirror hanging on the wall instantly. She saw a huge handwriting in red paint on it, almost covering the whole surface until she could only barely see her reflection. Sana grasped the doorknob tight as she read it.

“Coward,”

_Coward_

_I don’t want to suddenly show up_

_Remind me_

_Of how much a coward I actually am_

_Coward_

Sighing, Sana got out of the bathroom, signaling Jackson to check it himself because she didn’t like how her head was suddenly spinning. She didn’t like how everything in Lim Nayeon’s apartment was screaming _Myoui Mina_ all over. Their relationship was definitely closer than what Sana thought. Lim Nayeon was obviously _attached_ to Myoui Mina. Her paintings, quotes, _coward,_ everything made sense. Sana wondered if it was mutual. Sana wondered if Myoui Mina felt the same toward Lim Nayeon too. Even though her own thoughts scared her most times.

She heard Jackson’s disgusted grunt and ignored it as she became intrigued to another door some steps ahead of her.

Lim Nayeon’s bedroom.

It could be worse.

But her curiosity won.

The door creaked as she opened it. She turned the light on and figured out she was used to the miserable sight in front of her. The floor was warm and carpeted. The single bed was undone, of course. There was nothing on the wall other than the red and black paints. The closet was opened a little. And there was a desk right by the window.

Sana opened the curtains before she sat down on the desk, looking at the view. It might be the reason of the desk placement. Lim Nayeon liked the view of the capital city. Though Sana had never seen a painting of a city done by the girl.

Hopping off the desk, Sana rummaged through it instead. Books. There were many books there. Since it was already a mess, Sana didn’t feel so guilty as she opened them one by one and threw them carelessly onto the floor if she didn’t find anything suspicious. Books about arts, drawings, paintings, _history of artistry_ or whatever it was, Sana was dizzy by just looking at those abstract things.

Sighing after throwing away the last book on the desk, Sana bent down to open the desk’s drawer. But it was locked. The key wasn’t there.

Sana scoffed.

Her hand went to the back collar of her shirt, where she put her small hairpin, and easily opened the drawer with it. There were also books. Notes. Papers. Assignments with great to perfect marks. Sana was fascinated as she didn’t find any mark lower than an A in those assignments. Smart girl was smart. Pushing everything away, Sana then rummaged deeper.

She got rid of everything in that drawer until her hand touched a hard surface. Ignoring the papers covering whatever it was, Sana pulled it out.

It was a box. A shoebox with a post-it on it. Sana just smirked, recognizing both the word and handwriting.

_Coward_

There was a thick, heavy sketchbook inside. Sana put it on the desk as she stood back up. The cover wasn’t as dirty as Sana thought it’d be, meant that it wasn’t some book that Lim Nayeon left untouched for a long time. Seeing the cover, Sana assumed Lim Nayeon still used it from time to time. It’s just she put it away from the other books, inside a box, under a thick pile of papers and notes.

Sana frowned. Was the sketchbook actually hidden?

Patiently, she opened it from the first page.

_2013.03.11_

There was a drawing of a big building. Sana was about to turn the page before she saw something on the right side, right where her thumb was pressing.

Sana bent down with furrowed eyebrows. A big building, tall fence, a flagpole, _teenagers_. She knew what it was. Myoui Mina’s school.

Curiously, Sana turned to the next page.

_2013.03.17_

A drawing of a young girl in ponytail, wearing a school uniform, with a sling bag hanging on her right shoulder. Sana didn’t need to read the handwriting in the _awkward Hiragana_ on that page to know who the girl was.

_Myoui Mina._

Again, Sana went to the next page.

_2013.03.24_

Another drawing of a girl in the same uniform and sling bag sitting on a bench by a tall tree. Sana’s frown became deeper as she went further.

_Pretty._

Sana flipped the page again.

_2013.04.05_

_You like her face._

Again.

_2013.04.12_

_You like following her._

Again.

_2013.04.19_

_You like knowing where she goes._

Again.

_2013.05.13_

_You like her._

Sana stopped.

Those drawings, those words and the dates could only mean one thing. Lim Nayeon _liked_ Myoui Mina. She was _following_ Myoui Mina around during that time. If the drawings were based on what happened, Myoui Mina was definitely unaware of it. Lim Nayeon basically _stalked_ her. But Sana still remembered that story of their meeting near Myoui Mina’s school because Lim Nayeon also had some art courses there. Was that a lie? Was that story false and that they actually met under a different situation?

Hurriedly, Sana continued flipping through the pages.

_2013.05.25_

_You keep looking at her._

_2013.06.10_

_You want to talk to her._

_2013.06.29_

_You talked to her._

The last drawing was different. Myoui Mina was still the same with her ponytail, school uniform, sling bag, but Lim Nayeon also drew something strange. A hand. She drew a hand. Just like the other drawings, it wasn’t colored, but Sana knew that the hand was bleeding.

Sana didn’t know what it meant.

The next pages were about how they interacted. It was obvious how Lim Nayeon liked Myoui Mina more and more as the time passed. She knew _everything_ about Myoui Mina. Her school, her house, her habits, Lim Nayeon put everything in that sketchbook. How Myoui Mina went to her school by bus, how she ate her lunch alone in the backyard of her school, even how she _argued_ with one of her schoolmates one day, Lim Nayeon drew it precisely in the sketchbook.

She also drew the time they spent together. They ate, talked and did many things together. They got closer from time to time. Lim Nayeon never actually drew herself. She only portrayed them from her point of view. Everything was Myoui Mina. And Sana noticed how the drawings started to change, how Myoui Mina started to _smile_.

It was _that_ detailed.

Sana kept flipping through the pages until a certain drawing made her stop.

She traced it with her finger. _Gloves_. A drawing of Myoui Mina and a pair of _gloves_.

_2013.09.21_

_She cares about you._

Sana frowned. _What?_

Were those the same gray gloves Lim Nayeon had been wearing all this time? Were they related to Myoui Mina in a way?

_2013.09.22_

_You wear it all the time. It’s warm._

Sana reached her phone and quickly took pictures of the drawings on both pages. The gloves. She needed to know more about the gloves. Eagerly, Sana continued what she was doing. She didn’t need to look twice to know that Lim Nayeon and Myoui Mina got even closer near the end of the year. Until it reached December, and one page _again_ took her by surprise.

_2013.12.04_

_You love her._

Sana gaped at the drawing. They kissed. Lim Nayeon and Myoui Mina kissed. It was the first time Sana saw a drawing of Lim Nayeon herself, and she could confirm that it was indeed _her_ in the drawing. Her suspicion was true. Lim Nayeon and Myoui Mina were not _just friends_. They were more than that. That explained everything. That really did.

Carefully, Sana turned to the next page.

The same drawing. Both of them kissed. In a different angle.

The next page.

The same drawing. Another different angle.

The next page.

Another same drawing. And another different angle.

_2013.12.15_

_Her lips taste so sweet._

Shutting her eyes closed for a second, Sana hoped it would be okay if she continued looking through this sketchbook. Things were getting uncomfortable for her but she also didn’t want to back out. It wasn’t like she minded two girls loving each other, absolutely not, but the circumstances made it hard for her. It wasn’t just some two girls. It was a murderer and an _alleged_ murderer.

Sana shook her head and decided to continue.

The whole December was basically filled with how Lim Nayeon _loved_ Myoui Mina. They kissed in almost all the drawings. Sana went through the pages so fast her fingers started to ache. After December, she reached January, it was still the same.

And then February. Sana’s eyes widely opened at a _vulgar_ drawing before her eyes.

_2014.02.07_

_She’s beautiful._

Sana’s lips parted seeing how Lim Nayeon drew their… _time_ together. Well, Sana knew Lim Nayeon was an artist and nudity drawing wasn’t a strange thing to her but she still had a hard time to comprehend it in her head. Everything being detailed was the worst thing. Sana hated how she could see Myoui Mina’s uniform scattered around on something that looked like the backseat of a car. She also noticed the bruises and scratches all over the body because Lim Nayeon drew _everything_.

Pursing her lips, Sana hesitantly turned to the next page.

And it was even _worse_.

_2014.02.11_

_You want her._

Sana shut the sketchbook in an instant. Still gaping, she slumped down onto the bed, leaving the book on the desk. She had never seen something like that with her own eyes in her whole life. She suddenly felt guilty that she had to do this, even though respecting criminals’ privacy was something she never even thought of doing. She didn’t think it would be that… deep in knowing more about Lim Nayeon and Myoui Mina’s relationship through the former’s point of view. Because Sana was sure that it wasn’t mutual in terms of obsession.

Just how obsessed Lim Nayeon actually was to Myoui Mina? There were multiple crime scene scans in Myoui Mina’s house yet they didn’t find anything like that regarding Lim Nayeon, there wasn’t even any with a mention of her name, which meant Myoui Mina didn’t return the same obsession the older girl had for her. Yes, Myoui Mina might have liked Lim Nayeon too, but she wasn’t _obsessed_. Did Myoui Mina even know about that sketchbook?

No wonder it was hidden.

Sana peeked through the half-opened door to see what Jackson was doing, and sighed because he was talking in a call with someone. Sana wanted him to help too. She couldn’t handle that much information all at once. Even though she felt like there was still more inside that sketchbook that she hadn’t opened.

She spent almost two minutes sitting down doing nothing before deciding to continue. The sketchbook was so thick and yet she had only looked through so little of it. Taking a deep breath, Sana stood up to the desk and opened it again.

She went fast this time.

Her hand flipped the pages so quickly she barely glanced at the drawings. She saw glimpses of more vulgar drawings and she tried her best not to stop because of it. She went through the year 2014 and then 2015. Sana didn’t read the handwritings. Though she noticed how the drawing lessened in the year 2015, just like how the drawings in 2014 were lacking in numbers compared to the ones in 2013.

Lim Nayeon drew a green window too, in early 2015. Sana realized by that time Lim Nayeon had graduated from high school. She couldn’t meet Myoui Mina often, which explained the lesser number of drawings in that year. She only drew in the days she met Myoui Mina. Sana tried not to miss a single page as she quickened her pace to reach the current year, 2016, where both murders happened.

It was still the same in early 2016. The difference was, Lim Nayeon implied most times that she was back in her old creepy habit; stalking. Lim Nayeon sometimes drew from her point of view, of her watching Myoui Mina from inside her car. Sana noticed how Lim Nayeon once stopped stalking from 2014 to 2015, but went back doing it in 2016.

_Obsessed_. Lim Nayeon was obsessed.

The drawings in January alone almost reached thirty pages. Sana counted. February was a little bit less but still around the same number. Her heart started thumping as she reached March. The month Han Sungwoon was murdered.

Things got fishy since the day 1.

_2016.03.01_

_She cried. That bastard._

Sana slowed her pace. _Bastard_. Lim Nayeon used the same word Myoui Mina did in describing Han Sungwoon. Sana assumed she was referring to him, because who else would make Myoui Mina cry like that? Lim Nayeon had never drawn a crying Myoui Mina before that day. Meanwhile Sana wasn’t sure that after being more than friends for more than a year, Myoui Mina only cried for the first time in March 1 st 2016\. She must’ve had cried before too, Lim Nayeon just didn’t draw it.

Sana assumed that time was really bad until Lim Nayeon drew it.

_2016.03.03_

_Fucking bastard._

Another drawing of Myoui Mina crying.

Sana started hesitating. The murder happened exactly two weeks after that. The drawings hadn’t been the usual rainbows and unicorns, though with a little bit of creepy and vulgar stuff. She opened two pages more, and it was still the same. Stopping for a while, Sana took another deep breath until it filled her lungs. Her heart was thumping madly and her hand started sweating. She might get an answer of her long, endless investigation of Myoui Mina’s case by opening it. Or she might not, and she promised herself to be okay if that happened.

She finally continued.

_2016.03.07_

_You hate him so much. More than your garbage father and slut mother._

_2016.03.10_

_She said she loved you. You believe her._

_2016.03.13_

_She was still upset._

_2016.03.15_

_You have new scars. Wear your gloves tomorrow._

Sana stopped again.

Beneath the page of the drawing in March 15th, Sana saw a huge handwriting. She almost reached the murder day. The sketchbook was nowhere near an end. Lim Nayeon didn’t stop drawing even after the murder. Or at least, she still used that sketchbook after Myoui Mina was arrested.

Sana wanted to know what was next.

With her slightly trembling hand, Sana flipped the page. She let out a small gasp reading the huge handwriting filling the _whole_ page.

_YOU FUCKING COWARD_

There was no drawing, no dates, no Myoui Mina. Just the handwriting. Sana traced it with her finger, feeling how _deep_ Lim Nayeon must’ve pressed the pencil into the sketchbook when she wrote that. The paper was wrinkled, almost ripped. The strike of dates had ended in March 15 th, two days before the murder.

Slowly, Sana went to the next page.

_COWARD_

Without dates, without drawings, only handwriting.

Several pages next were the same. _Coward._

Sana got impatient.

She skipped through the _coward_ pages to find something else. If Lim Nayeon wrote it daily, Sana counted it would be thirteen days of her writing _coward_ over and over in the sketchbook. And when Sana would’ve reached fourteen, _coward_ wasn’t there.

_But you liked it._

Sana frowned. _But you liked it_. Still no date and drawing, but it was written in a more relaxed manner than those _coward_ pages. The paper was fine, a little bit wrinkled but nowhere near being ripped like the ones the previous pages had. Sana already had a guess in her mind.

And her hope for it to be answered happened too soon.

Sana was taken aback _again_ , for the nth time that day, when she turned to the next page. There was finally a drawing, but not Myoui Mina, or Lim Nayeon herself. There was a gore drawing of a man, lying on the ground with his abdomen torn open, jaw slacked, eyes opened wide, tongue pulled out, and a slashed throat.

_You could’ve done better._

Sana backed away from the book and ran both hands through her hair. _Holy shit_. Sana recognized that man. She knew that face. March, 2016, Han Sungwoon, and _you could’ve done better_. It all made sense. Sana got it right again this time. Her suspicion _finally_ worked. She actually could finish this case.

Jackson and Youngjae should see that too. They should continue going through the sketchbook together. The clues they had been looking for were all inside it. She was sure there was more that they could use, even for Jungyeon and her team. Sana hurriedly took the sketchbook by one hand, but her clumsy side suddenly came back as she dropped it onto the floor.

Sighing, Sana squatted down to pick it up, but she paused seeing that another different page was accidentally opened.

“Sana, what’s wrong?!”

Jackson ran inside, a little panicked, probably after he heard the loud thumping noise, followed by the security and manager. Sana didn’t answer so he also squatted down in front of her and saw the sketchbook lying open on the floor.

“Jackson,” Sana pointed at something on the page, a date, and by then Jackson saw she was trembling, “it’s today.”

Jackson frowned but he nodded, “Yeah, it’s today, why?”

Sana looked at him, her face pale, “Lim Nayeon is--”

Both of them jumped at the loud ringing of Sana’s phone. Sana’s trembling hands became more obvious as she struggled not to drop her phone as she picked it up after seeing Jungyeon’s name on the screen.

_“Hey, are you still in Sinchon? We just found her car in the highway. A black Spirra.”_

Spirra. Sana shut her eyes to think. Spirra. A black Spirra. A black Oullim Spirra. Oullim Spirra. A sedan.

A black sedan.

Lim Nayeon’s car.

_“But we don’t know where she’s going. We already--”_

“The office.” Sana quickly said, “KJH Group Partner’s office. She’s heading there by now.”

_“What-- are you sure? How did you know?”_

“Trust me, she’s going there,” Sana turned to the next page of the sketchbook and she could hear Jackson’s gasp echoed hers, “my God, shit, she’s going for Kim Ryuwon.”

_“What?”_

“Quick, get your team to KJH’s office right now. I’ll also be heading there with Jackson. We don’t have much time.”

_“But Sana--”_

“For God’s sake Yoo Jungyeon, do it! Believe me!”

Sana quickly hung up after Jungyeon said yes. She and Jackson glanced at each other for a split second before both of them got on their feet and started running, with Jackson carrying the heavy sketchbook with him. They told Youngjae to stay behind just in case Lim Nayeon suddenly went back to her apartment.

Sana was sure she saw it right. Jackson didn’t hesitate either as they went in an insane speed away from Sinchon. Sana closed her eyes and did her best to compose herself because she couldn’t be _that_ panicked.

But who wouldn’t turn into a paranoid mess when they were chasing a criminal who was about to commit _another_ murder?

Jackson then reached her hand and held it tight. Sana wanted him to let go because he was driving unbelievably fast but at the same time she needed it to calm her racing heart.

_It would be fine._ She told herself. _It would be over soon._

****


	8. eight

_“Today is KJH’s thirty-seventh anniversary. There’s a celebratory event there going on right now. It’s held annually…”_

Sana held onto Jackson’s arm tightly with one hand as he increased the speed of the car even more as they went further. Her other hand was busy with the sketchbook on her lap, as she listened to Jungyeon speaking through the phone which she put on speaker. Her heart was beating really fast it might jump out of her chest anytime soon. The more Jungyeon spoke, the more freaked out she got. Because everything that came out in Jungyeon’s explanation was already there, drawn in the damn sketchbook.

“So Kim Ryuwon is there too right now,” Sana mumbled, eyes scanning through the page, “the office is crowded, a lot of cars parked outside, a formal party, the not-so-tight security because there are many guests… it matches, holy shit.”

 _“Minatozaki, please,”_ Jungyeon sighed, _“you still haven’t told me anything. What’s happening right now? I’ve sent some of my team to KJH but I still have no idea of what’s going on.”_

“I already said it, I found a sketchbook. Lim Nayeon’s sketchbook.”

_“And?”_

“She drew everything in here, Jungyeon.” Sana went back to some pages before the Kim Ryuwon ones, “She drew her murders here.”

_“What?”_

“Fifteen pages,” Sana counted, “ _fifteen fucking pages_ for Baek Hyukmin’s murder. She planned it in May way until June. She spent almost a month planning it, oh God.”

_“Are you being serious right now?”_

A frustrated groan, “Do I sound like I’m joking, Yoo Jungyeon?! I’m dead serious-- look where she’s heading right now!”

 _“Well she’s…”_ Jungyeon paused for a moment, before she answered hesitantly, _“it seems like she’s going to Seongbuk…”_

“And? KJH’s office is in Seongbuk.”

_“So now you’re saying that Lim Nayeon is out there going to kill her own mother?”_

“Yes, I’ve been saying that and I’m going to say it again; Lim Nayeon is going to murder Kim Ryuwon in October first, twenty-sixteen, right on KJH’s anniversary party. It’s today, Jungyeon.”

_“But--”_

“It’s a five-story building, with the party being held in the hall on the second floor, below Kim Ryuwon’s room on the fifth floor. There are two functioning elevators and emergency stairs… another private elevator for the officials where you need a specific card to be able to use it. I’ve never been there so please tell me if it’s true.”

_“I’m only certain of it’s a five-story building. I don’t know about the rest. I didn’t spend much time there so I’m not sure.”_

“She has that card so she’s able to use the private elevator to the fifth floor,” Sana explained the drawings on the sketchbook to Jungyeon, “the security won’t question her since she’s Lim Nayeon, that’s easy. She… she’s going to wear that gray gloves again when she… takes a knife from the buffet table, what?”

_“What?”_

“She drew some kind of a table with foods on them… like a buffet. There are kitchen sets on it too, including a set of four knives, I don’t know. She’s going to take one of it. If she’s precise, it’s the far left one.”

_“She drew that?”_

“Yes, she did she drew _everything_ God, I’m freaking out right now I don’t know what’s going to happen please tell your team to be faster or else we’ll have one more victim,”

_“Okay, okay, they’re going as fast as they can, calm down. At least you know what you’re doing and-- oh shit, she’s there.”_

“What?!”’

_“She’s already in Seongbuk. She’s going to reach KJH in no time. God damn it, Jinyoung, be fast!”_

Sana bit her lip, “Oh God…”

“At this rate we’ll reach KJH faster than Jungyeon Sunbae’s team.” Jackson said, “We have to make a plan, Sana.”

“Okay, wait,” Sana pursed her lips, having a hard time keeping the sketchbook still on her lap with how fast Jackson was driving, “knife, buffet table, and then elevator-- the moment she reaches elevator then it’s over. She’ll go straight to the fifth floor and no one is there to stop her.”

“No security?”

“According to her drawings; no. There are three separate working rooms on the fifth floor. I assume they belong to the officials. The middle one is Kim Ryuwon’s. There will be no one because first, they’re having a party and second, there are indeed securities but only around the regular elevators, maybe they think it’s already safe enough. She drew no one else on the fifth floor, Jackson. It’s only Kim Ryuwon there.”

“Alright, so what should we do?”

“I just… I’m not sure about this… buffet table,” Sana frowned, “she only drew the table, she didn’t imply where this table is placed. I mean, she’s going to take the knife from here. If it’s placed in an obvious spot, at least someone will notice. But if it’s hidden, I don’t know where it is.”

“Only the table?”

“Yeah, it’s only the table. There’s nothing else around it.” Sana tapped the page harshly with her fingers, “Maybe an empty room or something? But I don’t know where--”

 _“Minatozaki, are you still listening?”_ Jungyeon suddenly spoke.

“Yeah, why?”

_“It seems like Lim Nayeon has reached KJH. Where are you now?”_

“We’re--” Sana let go of Jackson’s arm for a moment and was jerked to her left when he made a sharp turn so she grabbed him again, “We’re in Seongbuk now. We’re almost there. Where’s your team?”

_“They’re still behind you. There’s no way they’ll reach KJH before you.”_

Sana groaned, “Fine but tell them to be fast. When I reach KJH I’ll turn this off. I know it’s still absurd to you and I’m not in the right mind to explain but you trust me, right?”

_“You know I always trust you.”_

“Okay. So the best plan I can come up with is,” Sana continued talking to Jackson with louder voice so Jungyeon could also hear it, “it’s going to be suspicious if we go straight to the fifth floor the moment we arrive, so we’re going to look for the buffet table. She’s not going to go to the elevator before she has the knife. We’ll have to find the table first to check the knife. If there are still four of them it means we’re still safe, but if one is missing then we’re dead. The rest, we’ll think later.”

“Sounds good. Can’t wait.”

“Remember not to make it obvious. There are a lot of people there, which is both good, we can camouflage better, and bad, they might ruin our plan if we’re careless. And Jungyeon,” Sana pursed her lips, “tell your team to just go straight to the fifth floor later.”

_“Fifth floor. Got it.”_

Sana looked to the front when the screen told them they were near. She took pictures of the drawings before she closed the thick sketchbook and hid it under the backseat, with much struggle. Hurriedly, she pulled her rubber gloves off and threw them carelessly to the back. Jackson clumsily did the same after her.

“I’m almost there, Jungyeon. I’m hanging up.”

_“Okay, but Minatozaki,”_

“Yeah?”

_“Be careful. Please be careful. You too, Jackson. Both of you.”_

Sana looked at her phone solemnly, before nodding as her thumb pressed the red button,

“We will.”

-

Taking a deep breath, Sana exited the car.

Both she and Jackson smiled at some people who passed by them unsuspicious, trying their best to hide their panic state. It wouldn’t be Sana’s first time catching a criminal red-handed, but she had always done it with a _team_. She wasn’t just nervous, she was mad _frightened_. She looked back to the car, to see her reflection on the window, making sure she didn’t look miserable and she was dressed well.

“No tight security, a formal party,” Sana whispered to Jackson as they walked together to the building, “she’s right.”

They could get in very easily, without being questioned at all. Jackson just needed to greet the front gate securities. The other guests didn’t throw any suspicious glare at them either, despite them being dressed not-so-formally, especially with Jackson’s sneakers. Sana looked around the parking lot as they walked.

“Spirra, find Oullim Spirra. Black Oullim Spirra--”

“There.” Jackson subtly pulled on Sana’s hand to show where the car was.

Sana felt her palms started to sweat again as she saw it, “Great. Now buffet table.”

They were guided to the second floor by the stairs as soon as they stepped inside. Again, they weren’t being questioned, though there were securities wearing suits here and there. Sana grasped Jackson’s arm tightly as they entered the huge hall on the second floor. And as soon as they walked inside, Sana almost gasped as she was met instantly by several _buffet tables_.

Jackson slightly panicked, “Sana, what--”

Pulling Jackson to the side, Sana took her phone from her back pocket and opened the pictures of the drawings. She looked around again to compare it with the drawing of the hall. Lim Nayeon indeed drew tables around each corner, where those buffet tables were placed. But in the drawing they were only empty tables.

“These aren’t what we’re looking for.” Sana pointed at the picture on her phone, “She didn’t draw anything on the tables. Look,”

Jackson frowned, “So there’s another buffet table we need to find?”

“Yeah.” Sana scrolled to the next picture, “Here, look at the details, the table doesn’t have beverages on it, these table here do. And there are no kitchen sets on them. They’re different. We have to find this one.”

“Okay.”

They walked around the side of the hall, eyeing everything subtly. People didn’t pay attention to them. They were busy talking among themselves. There was even a live band playing jazz songs. Realizing Lim Nayeon was probably around, Sana and Jackson grabbed a drink each to cover their faces a bit.

“I don’t see any kitchen sets on these tables, Sana.” Jackson said, as low as he could, “It’s probably in another place.”

“It’s absolutely not here.” Sana eyed another table they were passing through, “She can’t be taking the knife in the middle of this crowded hall. It’s impossible. It’s somewhere else and we have no clue.”

“Okay, so,” Jackson sighed, “what should we do?”

“Maybe we can--”

“Excuse me,”

Sana and Jackson jumped at a sudden voice from their left. It was a waiter, with a tray on hand.

“Ah, I apologize if I surprised you Sir, Ma’am.”

Jackson shook his head awkwardly, “No problem. What is it?”

He smiled as he gestured to Jackson and Sana’s hands, “Can I take them?”

Sana frowned for a moment before she realized that the waiter meant the empty glasses in their hands.

“Oh, sure.”

The waiter bowed after Sana and Jackson put them on the tray, “Thank you Sir, Ma’am. Please enjoy the party.”

Both detectives bowed back at the waiter. When he had walked away pretty far, Jackson sighed loudly.

“God, I know we need to stop being jumpy in times like this but I can’t help it. I really thought someone caught us--”

“No, wait, look at where he’s going.”

Sana kept her eyes on the waiter, who picked up some more empty glasses before he walked straight to another huge pair of door, in the opposite direction of where they entered the hall in the first place. The waiter pulled the door open and disappeared behind it. Those doors weren’t locked, though weren’t opened.

Grabbing Jackson’s arm, Sana pulled him to follow the waiter. He accidentally bumped into someone but the person, looked like someone in his 50s, just smiled understandingly at both Sana and Jackson.

“Are you sure we can get inside there?”

“We won’t know if we don’t try.”

And with that, Sana pushed one door open.

It was another huge hall. But it was empty. And quiet. Very quiet. Sana noticed how quiet it was when she let the door closed and the noises from the other hall was gone. Different from the crowded hall, there were round dining tables being placed neatly. It seemed like a grand dining was going to be held there. Sana let go of Jackson’s arm as she walked further, trying to find a buffet table--

“Sana,”

When Jackson tugged her sleeve and made Sana turn to her left, she finally saw it.

There was a huge rectangle buffet table by the wall. Sana’s eyes traveled from one edge to the other, seeing no beverage was placed there, and was met by a set of knives on the other edge. Sana didn’t need to count to know that _one was not there_.

_Shit._

“Pardon me, Sir, Ma’am,” Another waiter suddenly popped out of nowhere and made the two detectives, _again_ , jump in surprise, “the dining party hasn’t started yet. We will inform you when the time comes.”

“Ah, right,” Sana grasped Jackson’s arm again as she faked her smile, “sorry, we thought it’s already…”

She left her sentence hanging as she subtly eyed the ceiling to find CCTVs. There wasn’t any.

“We’re just going to wait outside.” Jackson said, pulling Sana with him, “Sorry for the inconvenience.”

The waiter politely nodded as Sana and Jackson rushed their way out.

“Okay, are we dead now?” Jackson asked, matching Sana’s quick pace.

“That dining hall is basically empty, only some waiters showing up occasionally. No CCTV either. She already has the knife with her. We need to go to the fifth floor.”

“Great, but how?”

There were two men in suits hanging around the elevator. Sana couldn’t pinpoint where the private elevator was from the drawings, and even if she could, she wouldn’t be able to use it because she didn’t have that specific card. By the stairs, there were even more securities standing there. Though none of them looked suspicious at both detectives, they still had to be careful.

They needed a convincing reason but Sana really couldn’t think of any when they were running out of time like that. Not to mention it was her first time in there so she had no clue of the building _at all_.

“Can you distract them?” Sana gestured at the two securities near the elevator, “There are only two of them compared to that bunch of men by the stairs so it’ll be easier. I’ll use the elevator to go straight to the fifth floor when they’re distracted.”

“What-- no, you’re not going to do it alone!” Jackson hissed, “You’re about to catch a murderer doing murder, not some pickpocket thingy! Even if we _really_ have to split, you’re the better distractor than me!”

Sana sighed, “So are you sure you can go up there and find her immediately? You didn’t even look at the drawings!”

“But Sana--”

“We don’t have much time, you know it. Come on. When it’s safe enough you can come after me to the fifth floor. Besides, Jungyeon’s team is also joining us soon.”

Jackson was still hesitating.

“Okay, here,”

Sana grasped her purse to take her earphone and gave it to Jackson. She then dialed Jackson’s number and left it on call as she put her phone in her back pocket. Jackson understood and used the earphone given to him.

“You can hear me as I go up there. When it sounds like I need some help, or when the moment Jungyeon’s team arrives, you can stop the disguise and go after me. Okay?”

“Fine.” Jackson nodded with a frown, “But be safe. Please.”

It was way easier for Jackson to distract people, including the securities. Sana never had that ability, no matter how easily manipulated the target was. She got inside the elevator safely, as her finger pressed the button with the number 5 on it hurriedly. She grasped the gun from her side in her hands, just in case.

The elevator dinged, and Sana was met by an absolute silence. There was no one there. She looked around, and counted there were three separate doors to different rooms. Sana remembered the drawing. Three working rooms, the middle one was Kim Ryuwon’s.

Right some steps ahead of her.

Dropping her purse carelessly, Sana ran and pushed the door open as she put her gun up.

But the sight wasn’t what she had expected.

The mother and daughter pair inside turned their heads at her when she entered the room. There was a far distance between her and the pair in the corner but Sana’s mind still went blank as the daughter _smiled_ at her, while resting her elbow on the headrest of her mother’s working chair, with her mother sitting on it, mouth taped, body tied, with a lot of blood staining her white blouse and the rope around her.

It wasn’t on the drawing. Lim Nayeon drew _nothing_ like that. It wasn’t in the plan. Lim Nayeon was only going to stab and _that was it_.

Sana felt like her heart was shattered to pieces as she stared at Kim Ryuwon’s eyes screaming for help.

“Detective Minatozaki Sana,” Lim Nayeon said, still with a smile that was far from the shy one Sana had witnessed before, “we’ve been waiting for you. Took you long enough.”

Sana didn’t budge. Her eyes went back and forth between Lim Nayeon and Kim Ryuwon.

“Put that gun down, please. You’re not going to shoot anyone in here, right?”

Trembling hard, Sana decided to just put her gun down, “So this is what you are.”

Lim Nayeon raised a brow, “Well, yeah? Finally now you know? Or you’re just saying how smart I was when I came and fooled all of you that time? Yeah, that too.”

Sana tightened her grip around her gun when Lim Nayeon played the knife in her hand, cleaning it off the blood. She was wearing those gray gloves again. Sana couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, couldn’t comprehend what _the fuck_ was happening in front of her, and just stared, being still.

“But oh well, I’ve always known you’re smart.” Lim Nayeon continued, “Do you know how easy it was for me to find information about you? Minatozaki Sana, senior detective in the homicide division of Seoul Police Station, thirty-four, female, single, received annual appreciative reward for three years straight, probably four this year that won’t be a surprise, Korean by nationality but Japanese by blood, family goes back and forth between Seoul and Osaka but most times the latter, is an only child and had a hard time in pursuing her career as a police officer because of it-- yeah, I know everything about you, Detective.”

A smirk as Lim Nayeon spun the knife in her hand.

“Just as much as you know about me.”

“Give me the knife, Miss Lim.” Sana extended her hand, “It’s over now.”

“Over?” The girl scoffed, “You seem to be getting it wrong. I’m not scared of getting caught. I’m not scared of _you_. If I were, I would just follow my original plan and leave immediately. I had so much time in my hands before you came here. Do you really think you can _stop_ me and I didn’t have any backup plan after spending such a long time planning this? You’re wrong. You were way too late, Detective. If I didn’t change my plan, your struggle in chasing me around would be useless.”

Sana frowned, “You knew I was after you.”

“Well, coincidentally.” Lim Nayeon shrugged, “When you and your clowns entered the front entrance of my apartment I was there, leaving through the front gate but of course nobody noticed it because I used my maid’s old, nasty car instead of mine.”

Seeing how flustered Sana was, Lim Nayeon laughed.

“Surprising, yeah? How can the mighty Detective Minatozaki Sana fall into my trick? Or does this actually happen often so your _appreciative reward_ is basically not relevant at all?”

“What do you want from me?”

Lim Nayeon still had that sly smirk on her face, “Going straight to the point, aren’t we? Do you not want to know what I changed in my plan the moment I know you’re going to get directly involved?”

Sana hadn’t answered when Lim Nayeon continued,

“I went to where I put my Spirra and exchanged it with that nasty car for you to know where I was. Then I went to some store to get this.” She pulled on the rope around her mother and it made Sana’s breaths hitch, “I didn’t have this at home, that’s why. And after that I made my way to this place as slow as I could so you could catch up.”

“You want me to catch you?”

“No, I want you to know what I’m doing.”

The frown was still there, “Why?”

“I don’t know.” Another shrug, “I usually don’t appreciate audiences but I do appreciate the ones who… understand _my show_.”

Sana couldn’t believe her ears.

“So you want me… to be your audience?”

“Correct!” The girl laughed again, “As expected, you’re smart. No wonder you make the others look like idiots. Then again, you’ve discovered my Busan show, haven’t you? Brilliant. I’d love to be partners with you.”

It was evident. Sana could tell. Lim Nayeon _loved_ compliments.

There was suddenly a painful cry interrupting Lim Nayeon’s laugh and the girl didn’t hesitate to shove the knife to Kim Ryuwon’s face with a hiss.

“Stop it right there!” Sana put her gun up immediately.

Lim Nayeon just looked at her sternly, “Put that gun down, Detective. You won’t shoot.”

“I will shoot when I have to. Stop whatever you’re doing and give me the knife.”

“Audiences aren’t supposed to disturb the show. Or else I will change it and it won’t be pretty.” Lim Nayeon pulled the knife back, “Put that gun down and just watch me, Detective Minatozaki Sana.”

Sighing with a shaky breath, Sana put the gun down but still holding it with both hands. Lim Nayeon smiled again at her as she walked around to the window.

“I saw you entering earlier, with that boyfriend of yours.” She said, looking down to the street below, “And I really appreciate that you left him behind because I only want you and nobody else to be here right now. He won’t be an appreciative audience for my show. I would’ve… kicked his ass out. Though I wonder where the other clowns are. Should I wait for them or should I entertain you now?”

Seeing how Lim Nayeon was a bit away from her mother, Sana wanted to use the chance to get closer to Kim Ryuwon but Lim Nayeon didn’t let her as she was quickly attached to Kim Ryuwon once again.

“Audiences aren’t supposed to come up on stage, Detective.” She said firmly, one hand grasping her mother’s hair and the other had the knife sticking to Kim Ryuwon’s neck, “Follow my rules, please. You don’t want this to get any worse.”

Sana held her gun even tighter, “Let her go, Miss Lim. I can shoot if I need to.”

“You can?” Lim Nayeon raised a brow, “You really want to?”

Sana was about to raise her gun up again but Kim Ryuwon’s cry when Lim Nayeon pressed the knife deeper until it drew blood pierced right to her heart until she mindlessly threw her gun away, “Fine, fine! I won’t shoot! I won’t shoot! Please stop it! You’ve done so much already. Stop it!”

An amused chuckle, “God, I love it when people freak out. And when they beg, but that’s another story.”

Letting her mother go, Lim Nayeon walked back to the window.

“Okay, then. I guess it’s time for my show.” She turned her head at Sana, “Sit back and watch, Detective. You’ll love this.”

Lim Nayeon pulled something out of her back pocket, a card, and put it on some kind of scanner on the wall near the window. Sana could only watch as suddenly one huge glass window was opened and it suddenly _hit her_.

Being tied on a chair, in a corner, near the window, _show time_.

Sana’s gasp matched the loudness of the wind.

_Shit._

Lim Nayeon spun the chair so her mother faced the opened window.

“Miss Lim--”

“Ready?”

“No, don’t!”

The girl’s smile was sinister when she started counting.

And everything went by so quick.

Sana’s scream covered both Lim Nayeon’s _three_ and Kim Ryuwon’s hysteric cry as it happened, and she was too late.

The moment Sana surged forward to get her hand on Kim Ryuwon after the girl’s strong push was the moment Lim Nayeon attacked her with the knife. Sana could barely avoid when it slashed her forearm and other parts of her body that she couldn’t register. She empty-handedly tried to gain her sense back to at least, stay alive after all the mess. The screams, the chaos, the sounds of crushed glass and some car’s ringing alarm, everything happened down there after she had failed in saving Kim Ryuwon could be heard clearly and Sana felt like her heart had stopped beating.

 _Failed_.

She had failed.

Minatozaki Sana had failed.

One more painful slash made Sana snap back into reality and decided it was enough of the assault she was getting. When she fell down with the knife being shoved to her face, Sana caught it with her bare hand, feeling it digging deep into her palm as more blood started dripping. Lim Nayeon sneered above her, not giving up before the detective.

Sana thought she was stronger than Lim Nayeon when she did in taking the knife away from the girl and threw it as far as she could because she couldn’t stand how it hurt her palm. But when the door was opened and she saw Jackson entering followed by the others, Lim Nayeon proved herself that she was just as strong by knocking the back of her head with something she didn’t see.

The girl wasn’t the last thing she saw before she lost it but her words rang in Sana’s head endlessly.

_It’s over, Detective._

_It’s over now._

****


	9. nine

When Sana woke up, her sight was blurry. Everything hurt, but what time it was became her most concerned one immediately.

“Whoa, slow down, tiger.”

Someone then touched her shoulders, softly pushing her to lie back down. Sana blinked once, twice, to finally realize that it was Hirai Momo, and sighed deeply, finally grasping on her surroundings.

Momo hovered over her, checking if she had fever, but Sana seemed okay. Looking at the sight on the hospital window, Sana realized it was already late. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath away from her little panic some moments ago, and sudden images of the earlier events flashed in her head.

“How long?” She then asked, her voice hoarse.

“Just a couple of hours.” Momo sat down beside the bed, chin under her palm, “You didn’t miss much but we’d all be so glad if you did miss more by resting.”

It made Sana open her eyes and frown at Momo.

“You’re injured, Sana.”

“I just got slashed, that’s all.”

“Yeah, _seven times_.” Momo rolled her eyes, “Three on your right arm, two on the left, one on your abdomen and one more, the worst one, on your right palm. Not to mention those bruises that even you may not know precisely how much and where they are.”

Sana sat up slowly with a painful cringe to take a look at her bandaged right hand, up to her forearm, also her left one. She remembered she got injured a lot, she just didn’t know it was _that_ much. Though she had to use her left hand for some time, she didn’t regret it. Things actually could’ve gone worse if she hadn’t caught the knife.

“You were unarmed, weren’t you? She even knocked you down.”

“Don’t remind me.” Sana gritted her teeth, “That bitch is crazy.”

Momo just chuckled at that.

“But hey,” Sana then realized something, “why are you here? I mean, this isn’t your case. You have yours to take care of.”

Momo crossed her arms, “Well, things had escalated quickly since you arrested that crazy bitch. Her mother died, remember? And… a lot of people saw, right? Also, she was a well-known lawyer… and her husband, the bitch’s father, is a famous university professor or something like that, so… it made to the news.”

“What?”

“The whole country now knows about this case, Sana. It’s everywhere on TV, portal sites, even newspapers, it’s inevitable. The people involved are well-known. Even if they weren’t, the way the murder happened itself made it impossible for people not to be curious.”

“So you’re saying this case is… now huge?”

“It’s not just huge. It’s the _biggest_ this year so far, Sana.”

Chest suddenly felt heavier than before, Sana looked away. Of course. She should’ve known it would be huge. The poor woman was _pushed_ from the fifth floor, free-falling onto the ground where there were people present. And Sana couldn’t do anything to stop it. Sana couldn’t even _touch_ her, let alone saving her. She was indeed correct at almost everything, it was only one thing she missed.

That sometimes, what murderers were afraid of the most wasn’t getting caught, but was unable to do what they wanted; murder.

“The whole office is talking about it. Some want to volunteer to help you and Jungyeon, but Jungyeon refused, saying you’d be displeased about it. With the whole public’s eyes on us, the case is declared as emergency and has to be finished as fast as possible. Because Jungyeon refused the volunteers, she and her team are currently busy right now, so that’s why I’m here. To take care of you.”

“Take care of me?”

“There are reporters outside waiting for you. A whole damn lot of them. It’s not just me who’s here with you. I told the others to wait outside in case something happens.”

Sana frowned but Momo quickly continued,

“Chief told us to. Yeah, he was here earlier, panicked seeing you unconscious with blood everywhere. He was about to cry, I could tell.”

Sana playfully scoffed, “Those fake concerns.”

“Hey, you should’ve seen his face when he literally shouted at me saying _Minatozaki is injured!._ He really cares about you, you know. Maybe a little bit more than to his dog at home.”

Nodding, Sana half-heartedly agreed, “Yeah, right.”

If Chief shouted at Momo because of her, he would shout even louder at Sana sometime later. It happened every time Sana got hurt, be it light or severe. He just wanted his kids safe and Sana understood that.

“But Sana,” Momo tapped her arm, careful if it might hurt her, “I’m serious when I said you should rest. You didn’t just get hurt, but you saw everything. You were there the whole time. It wasn’t easy for you. And I don’t want you to make it harder for yourself.”

“You said it yourself Jungyeon refused the volunteers. It means I have to work too.”

“Not in this condition.”

“I’m fine. It’s not like I’m badly-- well, seven wounds indeed sound bad and I’m literally bandaged everywhere but that’s it.”

“ _That’s it_?”

“Momo, you know I can’t just sit here while the others work.”

“You are _resting_.”

“I will rest. Later, when I’m done.”

“Sana--”

“Please?” Sana reached Momo’s hand with her uninjured left one, “I won’t be doing anything heavy anymore. I just want to be there, to work with them.”

“No.”

“Momo--”

Momo suddenly stood up, “You know what, I’ll leave and tell someone else you’re not close with to replace me while I wait outside so you can’t go anywhere.”

“No, please,” Sana tugged her arm, being pulled a bit away kind of hurt her but she hid it, “listen to me.”

“You can’t--”

“It’s about Myoui Mina.”

Momo frowned, “What about her?”

“My case, Momo. Myoui Mina is my case.” Sana still held tight onto Momo’s sleeve with her weak fingers, “The one that is huge right now is mainly Jungyeon’s case, but mine is different. You remember her, right? The one who was accused of murdering her stepfather?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I need to prove her innocence. I don’t have enough proof and statement so far. Jungyeon and her team are working on hers, not mine. They’re not focusing on Myoui Mina’s case. That’s why I need to go back.”

“Don’t you have Jackson and that boy with you?”

“Exactly, it’s just the three of us. I really need to go, okay?”

Momo still looked hesitant.

“I’ll be fine.”

A groan, “Ugh, this is why I hate you.”

Sana was about to argue when Momo yanked, albeit softly, her hand off of her and walked away, but turned out Momo grabbed a bag with clothes inside and Sana knew she had won.

“Go to the bathroom, I already brought some clothes. You can walk, right? If you can’t, you’re not leaving.”

Sana was already on her two feet as she grinned at Momo, “I love you too.”

-

She indeed didn’t look so well.

The sight on the mirror made Sana realize why Momo was so persistent of not letting her leave. She looked like she was super sick, even though Sana herself felt okay. Eye bags were ugly enough, and now Sana had a long, visible, purplish bruise on the right side of her jaw, all the way down to her neck. Sana was lucky nothing worse happened to her face.

There were indeed reporters outside. Sana hated them. They didn’t know manners and squeezed her on her way out. They reported that _the detective in charge was injured_ but then hoarded at her, not even minding about her bandaged arms and hand.

And it totally hurt like a bitch. Especially her abdomen. _God, her abdomen._

“Are you okay?” Momo asked as soon as they got inside the backseat of the car, helping Sana to put on her seatbelt before putting on her own.

“If I say no, will you tell me to go back?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Then sure, I’m okay.”

Momo rolled her eyes and turned to the police officer on the driver seat, “Is the office clear?”

“No, Detective. The reporters haven’t left since this noon.”

“We’ll take the back door then. Make sure none of them notices.”

“Yes, Detective.”

Sana threw her head back and closed her eyes as the car started moving. She could hear Momo talking on the phone with someone, saying _Minatozaki insists of getting back_ or something, realizing once again, Sana had everyone’s eyes on her. She didn’t expect less of it. She just hoped it wouldn’t be a burden. Because merely working on Myoui Mina’s case was already a huge burden to her.

“What do you want for dinner?” Momo suddenly asked, and Sana wondered when the last time she ate was.

Sana just hummed at the question.

“Please actually answer me and eat properly or else I’m bringing you back.” Momo glared at her, “And of course, my ramen cups aren’t allowed.”

A smile as she obeyed, “Cheese kimbap. I want cheese kimbap.”

“Alright, then.” Momo went back to the person on the phone, “Minatozaki wants cheese kimbap. What-- you never buy it before? Well, I don’t know. Just find it for her.”

Sana just stared amusedly at Momo before looking out to the window. She was about twenty minutes away from the office. She wouldn’t have enough time to think the moment she arrived. People would shower her with useless questions and concerns until it drained her and she couldn’t think straight anymore.

Shutting the voices around her down, Sana closed her eyes again. Twenty minutes should be enough for her to think of what she would do next.

-

Maybe it wasn’t entirely a good idea for her to go back _that_ quickly, because Sana obviously didn’t like those blatant stares everyone gave her when she walked in. She might be not in her best state, but it wasn’t like she was originally dead and suddenly came back alive. The way they stared at her was like as if they hadn’t seen her for years. The bows some of them gave her were hesitant and Sana was too hurt to return them.

Sana ignored everything and made her way to where Jungyeon and her team were, ditching Momo who was busy in the front office.

“What are you--”

Sana put her left index finger on Jungyeon’s lips because she knew Jungyeon was about to shout at her, and she still felt too weak to tort back. Room C on the second floor suddenly became quiet after her uninvited presence. Sana needed to thank Momo for bringing her some decent clothes because the ones she wore before must’ve looked terrible with all those blood on them.

“Don’t mind me, keep working. I won’t disturb.” She pointed at Jackson and Youngjae, “You two, come with me.”

“You should’ve stayed in the hospital.” Jungyeon frowned deeply, “I mean, look at you!”

Sana ignored her, “Did anyone actually buy my dinner?”

“God, what do you think you’re doing Sana--”

“It’s cheese kimbap. Momo called someone earlier. Was it one of you guys?”

“Sana,” Jungyeon grabbed her left wrist softly, pulling Sana to face her, and was still demanding, “I’m sending you back to the hospital. You’re--”

“Have you heard the phone call?”

“What phone call?”

“Between me and Jackson, when I was in that room with Lim Nayeon.”

“Oh, that.” Jungyeon glanced at Jackson for a moment, “My kids have but I haven’t. We’re still trying to--”

“You should. It’s important. It’ll show you how you don’t need to rush things like what you’re doing right now. She won’t go anywhere. She won’t even deny her murders if you go along with her view.” Sana pulled her hand from Jungyeon’s grip, “I’ll let you figure things out first before following up to you.”

Gesturing Jackson and Youngjae to follow her, Sana turned around to leave the room but Jungyeon was quick in blocking her way, making Sana realize she walked so _slowly_ , another proof of how weak she was.

“Look, I appreciate your help, I _need_ it, even, but you’re goddamn injured and you look _miserable_ so please, go back to the hospital. You’ve done so much already. Rest for at least a day or two then I promise we’ll work together again.”

“Well then great, if you’re really letting me rest from this case for a day or two. I’m going to focus on mine first before working together with you.”

Jungyeon’s frown got even deeper, “What--”

“Myoui Mina; my case. I’ll be working on it.” Sana held Jungyeon’s arm softly to walk past by her, “I’m taking Jackson and Youngjae. You can go back to work.”

“But Sana…”

“I’ll be downstairs if you need me. Work hard, Yoo Jungyeon.” Sana pushed the door open with much effort, “Oh, and if someone bringing cheese kimbap is looking for me, tell them I’m in the meeting room downstairs.”

Jackson’s arm felt cold as Sana held it in her way to their usual meeting room. They hadn’t used it since they went to Busan that time. Sana was relieved seeing how disorganized everything was because it meant nobody tried to interfere the small team’s work when they were not around. Sana really felt unnecessary when Youngjae pulled the chair for her to sit. She cringed seeing both boys’ worried faces.

“Why are you looking at me like that,”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jackson asked, taking a seat across Sana, followed by Youngjae.

“Well, yeah--”

“You were bleeding so much, Sunbaenim.” Youngjae said.

“Okay, I know I’m injured. Badly. I can’t even use my right hand but we need to work fast.” Sana sighed, “Lim Nayeon is going to be sent to trial soon for Baek Hyukmin and Kim Ryuwon and I want to add Han Sungwoon to that list.”

Jackson pursed his lips, “Are you sure she’s the one?”

“Positive.” Sana gestured at Youngjae to take notes, “You’ve seen the sketchbook, right? It’s obvious.”

“It is, but other than that we don’t have any more proof, Sana.”

“We’ll go find it, then.”

Both Jackson and Youngjae raised their eyebrows at her.

“That time when Lim Nayeon came back to Myoui Mina’s house, to take the green window paper,” Sana paused, and continued when the two boys nodded their heads, “where did she park her car?”

Jackson and Youngjae looked at each other before the latter answered,

“It wasn’t near, Sunbaenim. I don’t remember but where we parked was nearer.”

“Yeah,” Jackson nodded, “she walked all the way through the alley that time.”

“So she parked outside the alley, then?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

“Are there CCTVs around?”

Jackson crossed his arms on the table, “There is one, I remember. It’s on the left side after Myoui Mina’s alley ends. Maybe not exactly in where Lim Nayeon, or others park their cars, but it’s basically in the only road cars can take so we can see them passing by, though it isn’t clear who’s behind the wheels.”

“Great. We’ll go check the CCTV on March to find her.”

“I’ve checked it, back in the past investigation. There wasn’t anything suspicious, Sana.”

“Lim Nayeon has at least three cars.” Sana reminded Jackson and he went mum, “Intrado, Spirra, and what was that in Busan?”

“Captiva, Sunbaenim.”

“Yeah, that.” Sana put her left arm on the table softly, “Intrado, Spirra, Captiva and maybe there are more. It wouldn’t appear suspicious if you had no idea about it.”

Jackson agreed, “You’re right. We had no clue about it before.”

“Does Jungyeon’s team have the complete list?”

“I think they have, Sunbaenim. I’ll go ask them.”

“Okay, go ask them. We’ll find her, if we can.”

Youngjae nodded and stood up, but before he could leave, someone knocked the door. It was Dahyun, who hesitantly peeked through the gap and walked inside when Sana told her to. She put a huge plastic bag and Sana could finally feel hungry because of the smell.

“Hirai Momo Sunbaenim told me to give this to you, Sunbaenim.”

“Right. Thank you, Dahyun.” Sana looked up to her junior and gave her a small smile, “Also say my thanks to Momo.”

Dahyun timidly nodded, “Yes, but… a-are you okay, Sunbaenim?”

Sana was tired of that question but since Dahyun was cute, she answered with a nod, “I’m fine. Can you help us a bit? Take Youngjae with you and give him the full list of the cars under Lim Nayeon’s name. I need it.”

“Oh sure, Sunbaenim. I will.”

Dahyun bowed at her before she left the room, together with Youngjae. Sana was starving and she made a mental note to hug and kiss Momo later because she bought her four portions of cheese kimbap. Sana didn’t care anymore as she ate so clumsily with her bare hand and Jackson chuckled at the sight.

“Stop that.” Jackson grasped one roll with the chopsticks and shoved it to Sana, “Did you even wash your hand?”

“I’m hungry, okay? And you know I can’t do much with my left hand.”

“Which is why I’m feeding you. Open your mouth.”

Sana made a face, “That’s really not--”

Jackson caught her left hand and insisted, “Open your mouth.”

When Sana gave up, Jackson laughed again at how awkward she was.

“You’re lucky I’m injured, or else,”

Jackson just smiled and looked down, grasping another roll as he waited for Sana to finish munching, “You know I also don’t want you to get injured like this.”

Sana looked at him, frowning when he suddenly looked solemn.

“Why is everyone like this? I mean, it’s not like I was in the edge of death or something. And this isn’t the first time I got hurt.”

“Well, I don’t know about anyone else but it’s… hard for me, okay?”

“Hard for you?”

“Do you even remember what happened?”

Sana gulped the food, “Well, a bit--”

“I saw you, Sana.” Jackson looked back at her, “I saw how she hit you with that metal vase. You had a pretty severe concussion. You probably don’t remember but you threw up on the way to the hospital. Also your injuries… I had to wrap my shirt around your abdomen to stop the bleeding. Seven centimeters long cut with around two centimeters depth sounds nasty, huh?”

Sana was silent as she let Jackson’s words sink in. She really didn’t remember anything after she got knocked out. It did sound terrible and Sana finally understood those overflowing concerns everyone gave her. They didn’t overwhelm her then. She was indeed _horribly_ injured and if Sana encountered the same thing with a different person, she would be as concerned as well.

“Your right palm is arguably the worst, but the bleeding wasn’t as bad. The scars though, will probably never disappear.”

“My mind went blank after she pushed her mother.” Sana said, wanting to lift a heavy burden off of her chest, “I couldn’t think at all. I just… let her without fighting much. I didn’t have my gun with me anymore. My defense was weak-- no, _I_ was weak.”

“You were alone.”

“She was all by herself too.”

“She had a very structured plan.”

“And I couldn’t figure that out.”

“You _did_ figure it out.” Jackson raised his tone, “If you didn’t, we wouldn’t even go there in the first place.”

“If I did figure it out, it wouldn’t turn out like this. I would’ve _saved_ her from that nightmare. It wasn’t supposed to be like that and I didn’t see it coming at all.”

“We _all_ didn’t see it coming, Sana. It happened, okay? It was inevitable.”

“Inevitable? We could’ve stopped it.”

He put the chopsticks down, “Lim Nayeon had everything under her control. We-- you did as best as you could--”

“By letting her die and doing nothing afterward?”

“You didn’t-- God, you didn’t _let her die_. You _tried_ to save her!”

“But I failed and she died in front of me!”

“Stop blaming yourself!”

Jackson didn’t give her time to argue.

“Sana, it wasn’t your fault.” He looked at her with glassy eyes and Sana knew hers were the same, “No one’s blaming you. I brought your injuries up because I’m worried about you and I want you to know how bad it was so you wouldn’t dismiss them anymore. You need to think of yourself. You’ve done so, so, so much for this, Sana. We wouldn’t go this far if it weren’t for you. And I will never leave you alone if you’re still blaming yourself on what happened.”

Sana avoided Jackson’s eyes when her sight got blurry. No matter how much she ignored them, she was still very much disturbed by the images of Kim Ryuwon’s death right before her eyes. Deep down she knew it wasn’t her fault, but who wouldn’t blame themselves after they went through what Sana did? It hit her knowing she wasn’t just physically weak. She had become way weaker inside.

“We work together, remember? And we still do, because it’s not over yet. You don’t have to do everything by yourself. You have me, and Youngjae, and Jungyeon with her whole team who will gladly do anything you say. We trust you, we will do as you say, and we’ll finish this whole mess together. Okay?”

Sana didn’t answer and kept looking down so Jackson tried again.

“Okay?”

A hesitant nod was all she could give as she brought the back of her left hand up to wipe her eyes, “Okay,”

Jackson smiled, “Hey, don’t cry. You’ll look uglier than you already are.”

She snorted, “Shut up. As if you’re any better.”

Another laugh, “No, I’m kidding. You can cry. I won’t judge.”

Sana sniffed a few times before lifting her head to look up at the ceiling with a loud groan, “Look at what you did to me.”

But Sana actually didn’t mind. It helped her, though a little bit, to cope with what had been bothering her the whole time. Even if she couldn’t erase the guilt yet, knowing Jackson was aware of it was already enough. Maybe after everything was done, she would be able to forgive herself.

She was a human after all. She had her flaws and limit like everyone else.

Jackson still looked at her with the same smile before he grasped the chopsticks back, “Now let’s finish your dinner first. Then we’ll work again until we finish everything. Come on, open your mouth.”

-

There were printed photos on the table when Sana got back.

The doctor said she could go back to work as long as it wasn’t anything heavy. The CT scan proved her head was back to normal and she didn’t have to worry about her concussion anymore. Though she kind of got scolded for leaving too early, Sana appreciated how the doctor didn’t exaggerate her condition to force her to rest. Breakfast in the hospital’s canteen also wasn’t so bad, thought it would’ve been better if Jungyeon didn’t act like a nagging girlfriend the whole time.

Jackson and Youngjae weren’t in the meeting room and Sana wasn’t worried because she knew where they went. They left a bunch of things on the round table. A stack of printed photos were the first that caught her attention. There were also some papers, a USB, Jackson’s laptop and tons of light food for Sana.

She pushed the food away with a sigh. Everyone had been spoiling her for the past two days. Jackson and Youngjae were persistent in not letting her do anything other than ordering them around. They did the job and Sana was just there to sit and wait. Both of them said Sana already contributed by just thinking.

Sitting down, Sana grasped the papers first.

  1. _2012 Oullim Spirra; black_
  2. _2012 Chevrolet Captiva; silver_
  3. _2013 Renault Twingo; black_
  4. _2013 Kia Picanto; red_
  5. _2014 Hyundai Intrado; white_
  6. _2015 Ford Fiesta; gray_



Knowing she was right didn’t excite her like usual. It felt plain until the point Sana wasn’t looking forward of what’s next anymore. Maybe because everything had already been figured and all she did was finding more evidences to support her accusation. Or maybe because she was just so _tired_ she wanted to run away from everything.

Sana didn’t know it would affect her that much. She had been refraining herself from building the guilt but it wouldn’t fade by itself. She couldn’t just stay still bearing with her heavy chest. There were only two things that kept her going despite everyone else saying otherwise; her guilt and Myoui Mina.

_Myoui Mina._

Glancing at the printed photos, Sana sighed.

A lot of what-ifs had been crossing her mind lately. She thought of how everything would’ve turned out if she rejected Jackson’s request that tine and threw away the possibility of meeting Myoui Mina. She wondered what would’ve happened if the girl gave up and just confessed for the crime _she didn’t even do_.

It was almost impossible to prove, but Sana did it nonetheless.

Hearing her ringing phone, Sana groaned as she struggled to take it from her purse. She really depended on her right hand. Earlier Jungyeon taught her how to eat with her left hand and Sana ended up spilling the rice everywhere, resulting in the continuous nags from the former. _And Yoo Jungyeon wonders why she’s single_.

“Yeah, hello,”

_“Are you still in the hospital?”_ Jackson asked.

“No, I’m already in the office. Are you in Gangbuk now?”

_“Yeah, we’re here now. We’ve watched the original CCTV footage from the neighborhood’s police officer in charge.”_

Sana bit her lip, “And?”

_“There’s no difference from what I have.”_ Jackson paused for a moment and Sana could hear some unclear rustling sounds, _“It was really her, Sana. Lim Nayeon was there.”_

Sighing, Sana nodded her head, “Okay. Great. That’s good to know.”

_“So what should we do now?”_

Biting her lip, Sana stood up and looked down at the printed photos on the table, which she had separated from one another in their chronological order. She eyed them one by one to erase all of her unwanted hesitation.

_March 17 th 2016 – 9:21 PM_

_March 18 th 2016 – 7:13 AM_

“Can you pick her up?” Sana looked at the clock on the wall, “Myoui Mina, I meant.”

_“What? Like, right now?”_

“Yeah, the faster the better.” She still had a lot of time seeing that it hadn’t even reached noon yet, “Don’t you think it’s time to finally hear her confession?”

_“Alright.”_ She could tell Jackson was smiling, _“I’ll pick her up. Can you prepare by yourself?”_

Sana scoffed as she gathered the papers, printed photos and the USB, leaving the phone stuck between her ear and shoulder, “Treat her well, you two. I’ll see you guys soon.”

-

“That’s some quick work you got there.”

Sana didn’t need to look to know that it was Jungyeon. Bringing Dahyun and Jinyoung with her, she insisted to help. She said she was also curious of Myoui Mina and her whole case. At least she had stopped nagging, so Sana let her barge in. Besides, she brought the cute Dahyun so why not.

“It’s an easy job after all.” Sana shrugged, plunging the USB into the PC, “We look for the cars, there’s CCTV, and we found her.”

Jungyeon crossed her arms as she looked at the interrogation room through the glass, “And you’re actually right from the start. She’s innocent.”

Sana just shrugged again at that.

“Everything is settled, Sunbaenim.” Jinyoung said after Dahyun and him had finished tidying the desk, putting everything Sana needed on it.

Sana smiled at them, “Right. Thanks a lot. You can take some rest--”

“Now you go out and buy us lunch.” Jungyeon interrupted, pointing at Jinyoung, before tapping Sana’s shoulder, “How does jjajangmyun sound like?”

“Umm… great?”

“Jjajangmyun it is. Off you go.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

Sana sat down in front of the computer after Jinyoung left. She examined the files in the USB, clicking on the ones important to the case, replaying the recorded CCTV footage over and over again in the same part just to make sure. She let out another heavy sigh when Jungyeon bent down and hugged her neck tightly.

“Ugh get off me,”

“I have an idea,” Jungyeon ignored her, “since my culprit is Lim Nayeon and so is yours, why don’t we officially join hands and make this a one, huge case?”

“One case?”

“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about this but since you haven’t officially accused Lim Nayeon so I waited. There will be no more separated Busan and Myoui Mina teams; only Lim Nayeon team. My kids and I together with you and your kids. How is it? Sounds great, huh?”

“Have you talked to Chief about this?”

“Of course I have. He said yes almost immediately. He wants to take that responsibility off of you as fast as he can, you know.”

“And your kids?”

“My kids?” Jungyeon turned her head at Dahyun who was sitting awkwardly at the back, “Our Dubu here is very enthusiastic about it, right?”

Sana glanced at the said junior and found her tucking her head shyly, avoiding Sana’s curious eyes. _Cute_.

“So, how? Do you agree?”

“Well,” Sana nodded her head, “sounds like a deal to me.”

Jungyeon smiled and patted her head, “A deal it is. Because you know what? We’ve been wasting our time chasing the same person for _months_. If only we knew-- oh, she’s here.”

The door to the interrogation room was abruptly opened it actually surprised Sana. Youngjae came in first, followed by Myoui Mina, still with her usual penitentiary outfit and handcuffs around her wrists. There was something different though, a can of soda in her hands. Youngjae also put a plastic bag on the desk after Myoui Mina sat down. The camera caught what was inside. _Chocolate bars_.

Sana smiled.

Moments later, Jackson entered Sana’s room.

“Hey, sorry it took longer. We kind of dropped by a convenience store earlier.”

“It’s fine.” Sana grasped the papers and printed photos as Jungyeon finally let her go, “Has she had lunch?”

“Yeah, she has. All good.” Jackson took off his coat, “So, who will interrogate her?”

Sana stood up, “I will. Make sure you record everything.”

Jackson nodded with a small smile, “Of course.”

It was actually only her second time officially interrogating Myoui Mina in the office. Everything felt oddly familiar, only there were more people watching them, rather than Youngjae alone. Sana wanted to make it the last time for the girl. Months of being unfairly accused was more than enough, and Sana wanted to free her immediately, even though physically she would still be there.

Sana folded the papers messily and slipped them between her side and right upper arm. A pen was placed between her left fingers. Interrogating had never felt this heavy.

Knocking the door twice, Sana finally pushed it open.

“Hello,”

****


	10. ten

There was an absolute silence after Sana kicked the door close behind her.

Taking her time, Sana put the papers down on the desk before pulling the chair for her to sit. The girl across her was mum but the stare she gave Sana could tell all of the questions in her head. Sana usually wore her jacket or coat to hide her bandaged arms but because the room was too hot, she took them off, leaving her in just her shirt. It was long-sleeved, but her arms were still visible.

Sana was still adjusting her chair when Myoui Mina suddenly asked,

“What happened to you, Detective?”

The detective looked up to face the girl, and let out a smile seeing the concerned stare.

“I got hurt some time ago. It’s okay though, no big deal.”

Myoui Mina somehow didn’t look convinced.

“Have you had lunch?” Sana tried to change the topic and it worked when the girl nodded, “What did Detective Wang buy you?”

“Omurice.”

“Omurice?” Sana raised her eyebrows, “Sounds tasty.”

The small smile Myoui Mina had suddenly disappeared as she pursed her lips and looked down, hands gripping the can of coke. Sana could hear the chair creaking when the girl swung her legs. Her own smile faltered the more she observed the girl across her. She wanted to take those handcuffs off. She wanted to cut the fringe that had grown too long until it started bothering the girl.

She just felt her heart getting heavier each second.

“It’s going to be the last one, isn’t it?”

“Hmm?”

 “I’m going to be sent to trial after this, aren’t I?”

Sana tilted her head, trying to take a look at the girl who refused to look back, “Why do you think so?”

“Detective Wang has never asked what I wanted to eat before.” The girl let go of the can and let her fingers interlaced to one another, “He’s usually kind but not _that_ kind. I also heard the other detective asking about witnesses…”

Myoui Mina then hesitantly looked up, hair covering half of her face,

“You’re going to interrogate me one last time, right, Detective?”

And Sana’s answer was quick, “Right.”

When it was obvious how it made Myoui Mina’s face drop, Sana put her hand on the girl’s chin, softly pulling her to look back up.

“Hey,” She cooed, “remember when I told you that I would take your words seriously?”

A small nod.

“And I never break that promise. So don’t change your statement just because this is the last interrogation. I want you to tell me the truth of what really happened. And don’t worry, I will not interfere or dismiss it. Okay?”

Another small nod.

“Okay,” Sana nodded back, pulling her hand slowly because honestly, her body ached painfully if she stretched, “can we start now?”

“Yes, Detective.”

Exhaling loudly, Sana looked down to the papers on the desk.

“Your name is Myoui Mina,” She started, “nineteen years old, and you’re here because of the accusation of murdering Han Sungwoon, your stepfather. It happened seven months ago in your house in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. And according to the _first_ investigation, all of the evidences pointed at you, making you the alleged culprit in this case. Is that true?”

“Yes, Detective.”

Sana’s fingers grasped the paper so tight it might crumble.

“Now tell me honestly, did you, or did you not, murder Han Sungwoon, your stepfather?”

The girl hesitated.

Sana had never begged so hard in her head for someone not to tell lies.

“Be honest with me.” Sana said, sternly, “If you did say you did, if you didn’t say you didn’t. Don’t mind anything else.”

The ragged breath the girl let out rhymed with her stuttered answer, “I-I didn’t, Detective.”

“You didn’t?”

“No, I didn’t.” Myoui Mina shook her head and Sana could sense she was starting to panic, “I didn’t. I didn’t kill him. I didn’t--”

“Okay.” Sana quickly said, calming the girl down, “You didn’t do it. You didn’t kill him. It’s okay. I still have more questions.”

Myoui Mina looked up at her with strange eyes, “You do?”

“I do.” A firm nod, “Can we continue?”

Sana knew it must’ve been new to the girl. Her interrogation sessions had always met a dead end after she stated she didn’t commit the murder. The detectives, including Sana that one time, wouldn’t accept it and tried their best to retort and make her change her mind. More questions were asked, but they always rotated around how Myoui Mina should just admit the crime, and never in a calm manner like what Sana was currently doing.

So Sana was glad when she saw Myoui Mina calmed down, despite maybe, still wondering in her head.

“Yes, Detective.”

Sana gave her a tight smile as she continued,

“You were home the whole night until morning from March seventeenth to eighteenth; is this true?”

“Yes, Detective.”

“What did you do in March seventeenth?”

The answer was hesitant, “School…”

“You went to school?”

It wasn’t a lie because in the morning when the police came, Myoui Mina was still wearing her school uniform.

“Yes.”

“What time did you go home?”

“Around…” She bit her lip, thinking, “nine. At night.”

“You went home at around nine PM?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Sana assured her with another nod. She then stared at the papers again, decided not to drag it for any longer, “Were you alone?”

Myoui Mina’s confused eyes made Sana sure that the question was another new to her.

“None of the past detectives asked you this, right?” Sana understood the confusion and gave the girl another tight smile, “But I want to know; were you alone when you went home?”

The sounds of the handcuffs against the desk filled in the silence when Myoui Mina kept fiddling her hands and hesitated to answer.

“Tell me honestly.” Sana repeated once more, “Myoui Mina, were you alone when you went home on March seventeenth, at nine PM?”

“N-no, Detective. I wasn’t.”

“So you weren’t alone when you went home?” The detective asked again and Myoui Mina nodded, “Now tell me, who was with you that time? Was it only one person or more? And what did they do with you there?”

Another question, another hesitation.

Sana patiently waited for the girl to answer even though her heart kept hammering in her chest, hoping that the result of the investigation would match with Myoui Mina’s statements. They didn’t have much time left. Sana wouldn’t welcome a mistake and she was doing it for Myoui Mina too.

_Come on,_ Sana narrowed her eyes.

_Answer me_.

The handcuffs and the desk made a louder noise when the girl spoke, “M-my friend.”

“Your friend?”

“She drove me home.”

“A friend drove you home?”

“Yes, Detective.”

“What was her car? Do you remember?”

The girl sunk lower into her seat, avoiding Sana’s eyes. It actually worried Sana because the usual composed mannerism was slowly gone. Myoui Mina was _nervous_ and Sana wondered how the girl could hide her true state for these past months.

“You can tell me the color, if you can’t remember what it was.”

“Gray.” She finally answered, in one breath, “Her car was gray, Detective.”

And Sana’s shoulders sagged.

Taking a deep breath, Sana unfolded one paper she had kept folded the whole time, because it had the printed photos in it. She then bent forward to put them on the desk in front of Myoui Mina by their chronological order. Sana ignored the stinging pain on her abdomen when she surged forward and put them one by one.

There were six of them.

With a sigh, Sana was back in her position, subtly holding her abdomen.

“Is that the gray car you meant?”

It was obvious. Myoui Mina’s neighborhood was far from luxurious. The gray Ford Fiesta stood out the most among the other cars parked in the area. Sana waited, using her best patience, when Myoui Mina silently eyed the photos on the desk. She just wanted the statement. She just wanted the agreement.

And when the girl lifted her head, her eyes said it all.

Sana asked again, “Is that the car you meant, Myoui Mina?”

“Y-yes, Detective. This is the car.”

The exhale Sana let out was loud as she adjusted her seat once more, “Okay.”

Wasting no time, Sana pulled out another printed photo. She looked at it for a moment. _This is it_. That was the last straw she had in her hands to pull the truth out of Myoui Mina. Sana didn’t have anything else anymore.

“Now tell me,” Sana started again, with an even lower tone, as she put the photo on the desk and shoved it to the girl, “Myoui Mina, is this your friend?”

The girl’s immediate gasp had already answered her.

“She is the friend, isn’t she?” Sana was eager, “She’s the friend who was with you during the murder day. The one who drove and walked you home. The one who owned the gray car. The only one you can be truly associated with.”

Myoui Mina didn’t answer. Her fists were clenched, handcuffs raked noisily onto the desk.

“She didn’t leave until morning. Her car left at seven AM the next day. She was also there the whole night with you, but left before the police came.” The patience was running out, “It wasn’t you, was it? You were never guilty since the first place, weren’t you?”

But the hesitation remained.

And Sana was losing it.

“Answer me!”

“I-it was too fast,”

“What was too fast?”

“How it happened,” The girl was trembling, “s-she just did it. I couldn’t do anything.”

“Did she--”

“I tried to stop her! I wanted to stop her but she didn’t listen!”

Realizing the girl’s panic state, Sana tried to calm her, “Okay, I understand--”

“He was being mean to me.” The girl didn’t stop, eyes glistening with tears, “That night, he shouted at me, calling me names. She was there with me when he did a-and it made her angry. It made her upset. I didn’t think it would go that far but she did-- she did it in front of me. I didn’t know what to do. I t-thought she wasn’t being serious when she said she wanted to… to kill him but she did,”

“She said she wanted to kill him?”

“Many times! She said she hated him. She said I didn’t need him. B-but I didn’t think--”

“Okay, okay,” Sana tried to grab the girl’s hands, but she yanked it off.

“I told her to leave. I-I shouted at her and told her she was crazy. There was-- blood everywhere and he was dying. The knife was in his stomach and I p-pulled it out--”

“You pulled it out?”

“I didn’t want him to die!”

Sana quickly stood up and walked to the girl, pulling her into a hug, “Hey, hey, it’s okay. You didn’t kill him. It wasn’t you. It’s never been you. It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” She rubbed the girl’s back, trying to calm her, “You’re okay. It’s fine now. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry that we found out so late.”

“I-it wasn’t me,” Myoui Mina grasped her shirt so tight and Sana ignored the pain, “I didn’t do it. I didn’t--”

“I know, I know.” Sana sighed, hugging the girl even tighter, “You didn’t do it. I believe you. We believe you.”

Sana stayed that way until Myoui Mina calmed down. She wrapped her left arm around the girl, drawing circles on her back softly. She then glanced at the desk, at the printed photos and everything that had led to the confession she had waited for so long.

It was enough. Sana didn’t want to make things hard for the girl anymore. Myoui Mina had told her so much.

Turning her head to the mirror, Sana switched back to Korean.

“Let’s stop now.”

-

Closing the door behind her, Sana walked in.

The meeting room looked a bit fuller than usual, with Jungyeon and Dahyun joined. Because they had, though unofficially, joined hands, Jungyeon’s team was hers too and it wouldn’t be just the two boys with her. Sana rubbed her tired eyes when she sat down beside Jungyeon. The bowl of jjajangmyun Jungyeon bought her was great and it would be even better if she could get some nap but of course Sana didn’t tell anyone about that.

“Okay, so,” Jackson started.

Sana raised her eyebrows, “So… what?”

“What did she say?”

A frown as Sana pointed at the laptop on the center of the round table, “You’ve watched the video. And you were there when I interrogated her.”

Jackson frowned back, “Sana, you spoke in Japanese.”

Sana suddenly felt stupid, “Oh, right…”

A laugh as Jungyeon rubbed her shoulder, “You okay? You look drained.”

“I’m fine.” Sana gestured Youngjae to take notes, but the youngest detective in the room also followed suit, “She told me quite a lot of things.”

“Things we didn’t know?”

“Yeah.” Sana pursed her lips, “According to her, Lim Nayeon did it.”

She had already portrayed it in her head. Lim Nayeon drove and walked Myoui Mina home. Han Sungwoon, being the verbally abusive stepfather he was, started calling her names and it angered Lim Nayeon. And it indeed wasn’t planned. Lim Nayeon was only there to be with Myoui Mina, not to murder Han Sungwoon. It happened spontaneously, because she was furious, hence why Myoui Mina stated repeatedly that she didn’t know what to do.

“It kind of matches my assumptions.” Sana said, “Lim Nayeon had never committed a murder before Han Sungwoon so it was… reckless, if I may say. Far from planned like her other murders. The knife she used was the kitchen knife belonged to Myoui Mina’s house. She didn’t prepare anything beforehand.”

“But what about the fingerprint?” Jungyeon asked.

“Gray gloves. Remember those gray gloves she wore in her Busan murder? She had the same in her latest murder too… so it wouldn’t surprise me if it were the same for Han Sungwoon’s case. She wore these gloves a lot. It’s even mentioned a few times in her sketchbook. I’ve been wondering about it since the start but haven’t actually looked further into it.”

“So according to Myoui Mina,” Jackson crossed his arms, “Lim Nayeon murdered him because she was angry at Han Sungwoon for what he did to Myoui Mina?”

“Yes.”

“Just that?”

“She did mention one more thing,” Sana eyed the laptop screen, where the earlier interrogation video was displayed in the pause mode, “Lim Nayeon once said to her that she wanted to kill Han Sungwoon.”

“Lim Nayeon did?”

“Yeah, many times. Myoui Mina said Lim Nayon did it many times; saying she wanted to kill him. But Myoui Mina didn’t take it seriously. I don’t know to what extent but if it’s true… then her urge was already there since a long time. And she was… heavily triggered when she actually murdered him.”

“Makes sense.” Jungyeon agreed, “There are sentences like that too in her sketchbook. How she hated Han Sungwoon, even more than her own parents. Right?”

“Right.” Sana nodded, “I remember reading it.”

“If that’s the case…” Dahyun suddenly spoke up and all the heads turned at her, “why didn’t she just tell it from the start?”

Sana was about to answer but Jackson was faster.

“She couldn’t. It’s my fault.”

Jungyeon frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Before Sana joined, this case was originally handed to me. Seeing who the victim and alleged culprit were, who both aren’t well-known or important, I saw this as an _easy_ case.” Jackson admitted, “I already had around five cases with me too so I wanted to finish this quickly. With all the evidences pointed at her, of course she was nowhere near innocent for me back then.”

He put his crossed arms on the table, sighing.

“I forced her to confess that she did the crime. I told her it would reduce her sentence. I didn’t want to drag this for long. And when she didn’t cooperate… I kept insisting because I had got fed up of her.”

“She didn’t say anything because she couldn’t trust anyone.” Sana added, “And on top of that, she isn’t the best in talking. Her Korean is awful. She can’t deliver formal speeches. She’s way better speaking in Japanese, that’s why she only talks to me.”

“And we only found out about that after Sana joined.” Jackson glanced at Sana with a bitter smile, “Really, I put little to zero effort in this case before.”

“We all went through that phase, you know.” Jungyeon said, mirroring the smile Jackson had, “Well, I’m not saying our leader is incompetent, but he indeed has this mindset that nobody should follow. But it’s inevitable, since he’s our leader after all, we might follow even the bad side of him even for just a short period of time. We basically work for him. So it’s no wonder if he influences us. You two understand what I’m saying, right?”

Both Youngjae and Dahyun nodded.

“A crime is a crime.” Jungyeon continued, “Regardless of the people involved in it. Don’t treat crimes differently because of the people. A poor victim has to be given the same justice as the rich. Also the rich culprit has to be given the same punishment as the poor. It’s a simple logic yet very hard to follow.”

Sana looked at the whiteboard when Jungyeon spoke. She saw the pictures of the people involved in the case, the arrows she drew between them and the additional keywords she wrote, leaving no empty space on it. So much things had happened in the case and Sana was glad she didn’t back out.

She was almost there.

“So, what should we do next?”

Sana didn’t look away from the whiteboard, but she knew the question was directed to her.

She took a deep breath, still looking at the picture, “Lim Nayeon. I want to get confessions from Lim Nayeon.”

Jungyeon sighed, “You know, last time I talked to her she really pissed me off. She literally twisted my words!”

“You should’ve known how to talk to her.” Sana turned to Jungyeon and the rest, “She’s the total opposite of Myoui Mina in almost everything, including speaking. She’s a smooth talker. Like you said, she even twists your words. But if you go along with her way, playing along with her, it won’t be difficult to get that confession.”

“I suggest we also check her mental health.” Jackson said, “I mean it’s already obvious to everyone that she’s… not quite healthy in that part.”

“Right.” Sana nodded, “Just let me do one or two more interrogations then we’ll check her mental state completely. I don’t want to lose the momentum when she’s still in her euphoria after her latest murder.”

“It won’t be easy, though…” Youngjae mumbled.

Sana looked at him questioningly, “What?”

“I just think it won’t be easy during the trial later, Sunbaenim.” He put his pen down, “I heard her father, Lim Taejoon, had already prepared some of the best lawyers for Lim Nayeon. He also had to willingly bribe some media not to publish about this case anymore.”

Jungyeon sneered, “He has a name to protect, that’s why. It’s not like his daughter is the sole reason for him. He’s also in an urgent state because of this. I mean, can you believe until this day, no one but the _maid_ had made efforts to meet Lim Nayeon? Not even Lim Taejoon or any other family members. It’s kind of rare, you know. If anything, this proves that they’re just a family for show.”

“It won’t be too difficult if the culprit herself refuses to be shielded.” Sana said, shrugging, “I’m telling you this; Lim Nayeon doesn’t see her murders as a crime she needs to hide. It’s indeed kind of tricky but just… let me talk to her, and you’ll see why.”

“Okay. Fine with me. Can you do it tomorrow?”

Sana couldn’t agree more, “Tomorrow will do.”

-

11:52 PM. Sana shut the laptop close.

Rubbing her tired eyes, Sana didn’t hold back the yawn, signaling how sleepy she was. She had been in front of the screen for hours straight, trying to visualize the murder based on Myoui Mina’s statements, also figuring out what to say or ask to Lim Nayeon the next day. Jackson and Youngjae had already gone home and she was alone in the meeting room.

Sana then stood up to stretch, and soon regretted it because her body ached. She looked at herself in the mirror. She had been eating well these past days. She didn’t look as terrible as that last time in the hospital. The bruise on the side of her face had faded a little so it wasn’t so obvious.

When her stomach grumbled, Sana didn’t fight her urge to eat. She took the dark blue flannel from the chair which maybe belonged to Jackson, and put it on as she walked out of the meeting room. The office was a little bit quiet compared to the day. She saw some colleagues falling asleep in their cubes, some in more random places. She kind of missed her own cube. She had been using the meeting room a lot these days.

Sana turned right to where Momo’s cube was, for the ramen cup. She was too lazy to walk outside and ramen cup sounded so good, even better if Momo weren’t around. The other Japanese still said no to her if she asked for some so it would be better if Sana just took it without asking.

The other side of the floor was a little packed compared to where the meeting room was. Sana looked around before she saw Dahyun in the corner, with her notes in hand.

“Hey,” Sana walked to her and Dahyun bowed, “why are you still here?”

“We have just finished the interrogation session, Sunbaenim.”

“Interrogation?”

“Yes, some witnesses came today and Jungyeon Sunbaenim insisted of finishing quickly in case they couldn’t come in the next few days.”

“Ah, right,” Sana wouldn’t question Jungyeon about that, “you guys work pretty fast too.”

Dahyun smiled, “Thank you, Sunbaenim.”

“Who are the witnesses, by the way? Do I know them?”

“It’s the--” Dahyun then looked at someone behind Sana, “oh, here!”

Turning around, Sana saw Jinyoung and the other kid whom she forgot the name. They were with someone, a witness, probably, and Sana was about to stop staring before he lifted his head and met her gaze.

Sana stilled. She recognized him.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Tuan.” Dahyun said, shaking the witness’ hand, “We’re very glad to have your cooperation.”

“Ah, no problem, Detective…” Mark Tuan said hesitantly, eyes shifting nervously from Dahyun to Sana.

He recognized her too.

“Thank you very much.” Sana said, patting his arm, “And it’s nice meeting you again.”

“Sure,” Mark Tuan’s smile was stiff as he turned to avoid Sana, “can I leave now?”

“Of course.” Jinyoung nodded, “This way, Mr. Tuan.”

Sana just watched as the two boys escorted Mark Tuan to the front office. She was kind of surprised the guy remembered her. Their meeting was short and they, Sana and Jackson, weren’t the only visitors that day. He seemed like a nice guy, though. Sana was impressed because he willingly came to the police station as a witness until this late at night.

“Do you know him, Sunbaenim?” Dahyun then asked.

“No, but I’ve met him before. He’s the art club’s president, isn’t he?”

Dahyun nodded, “Yes. You know about that too?”

“Not so much.” A shrug, “By the way, have you eaten?”

“Not yet, Sunbaenim.”

“Good.” Sana turned around and walked ahead of her junior, “Come and have some ramen with me now.”

-

Momo wasn’t there in her cube. Sana took two ramen cups and soon was sitting inside Dahyun’s cube a bit far from Momo and hers.

She peeked at her junior who was pouring hot water into the cups. She really didn’t mean to make Dahyun do things for her but she couldn’t say no when it was obvious how struggling she was in _just_ serving ramen cups. She felt really useless without her right hand. She wondered how ugly her scars would look like.

“Here, Sunbaenim.”

Sana smiled when Dahyun put hers on the desk, “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Dahyun sat down on another chair across her, “But Sunbaenim, are you sure Momo Sunbaenim is okay with this?”

“It’s fine.” Sana said, already devouring hers, “Besides, I took them, not you.”

“But I’m also eating it.”

“Don’t worry too much, it’s really fine. Let’s just eat.”

They both went quiet as they ate their ramen. Sana finished hers in span of minutes, way before Dahyun and she actually gulped down the soup. She didn’t know if Momo would like it or not but Sana felt she didn’t care anymore after her stomach was filled. Eating one ramen cup wouldn’t kill her anyway.

“Sunbaenim,” Dahyun suddenly started.

“Hmm?”

“I was wondering… but I don’t know if I should ask you or not…”

“What is it?” Sana put her cup away.

“It’s nothing, but…” She then asked hesitantly, “do you smoke, Sunbaenim?”

Sana raised her eyebrows at the unexpected question but she still answered, “I used to. Not anymore.”

“Ah, I see…”

“Why?”

“It’s nothing but Jungyeon Sunbaenim earlier asked me to buy a pack for her. She said she’d need it for tomorrow so I wondered if you… would want some too.”

“Yoo Jungyeon, really,” Sana scoffed, “did she say I smoke too?”

Dahyun just nodded awkwardly.

“Don’t believe her. I don’t smoke now. It’s been two years, almost three, since I stopped.” Sana leaned further onto the backrest, “She’s just bitter I could stop and she still can’t.”

“Was it difficult, Sunbaenim?”

“Yeah, it was. Very difficult, even. And it’s even worse when you have the bitter Yoo Jungyeon around you almost all the damn time.” Sana said and Dahyun’s laugh amused her, “We used to smoke together. We’d talk a lot at nights, willingly spending money on cigarettes. It was okay when I was younger, but when I reached thirty, I felt how it affected me, physically.”

“So then you stopped?”

“Yes. Took me a year. Very difficult, but it was worth it. I feel a lot better now that I don’t smoke. Even though of course, the idea of smoking is still not so bad for me.”

Sana then stood up and threw the empty cup onto the small trash can.

“I think it’s already widely known how horrible smoking is for your body so you’ll know my answer if you ask my opinion about it.” She continued, “But it’s your life, so your choice.”

Dahyun just looked at her silently when she sat back down.

“So how is it like?” Sana asked again, “Working with Yoo Jungyeon?”

“Umm,” Dahyun pursed her lips, slightly smiling, “it’s… nice, I guess. She’s very patient with the rest of us. She also cares about us. She can be grumpy at times but she never stops or gives up. Though I’m still new in almost everything, I feel really appreciated.”

Sana nodded her head in agreement.

“Isn’t she your senior, Sunbaenim?”

“Yeah, by a year.” Sana tapped her fingers on the desk, “She was in a batch above mine. We grew close when we worked together for one case back then. Though I was the youngest, it was also her first field experience, so we were in the same page.”

“Is that why you don’t address her with honorifics?”

“Yes. I don’t even remember when the last time I did so. We became too comfortable with each other. Besides, what’s a year difference anyway. It doesn’t matter much.”

“I see…”

“But wait, is this your first field experience?”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.” Dahyun smiled, looking proud, “I didn’t think Jungyeon Sunbaenim would pick me but… she surprisingly did.”

Sana smiled back, “You’re both lucky and unlucky then. Unlucky because the very first case you got is _this_ complicated but lucky because you have Yoo Jungyeon with you. Not every newbie gets to work with her. You’re lucky it’s not someone else.”

_Like me, for example._

Dahyun nodded shyly, “I guess so, Sunbaenim.”

Sana then glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and realized it was way past midnight. She needed to have some rest or else she would be dead tired for another long day ahead. She also noticed the eye bags her junior had, not too different from hers.

She then stood up to leave the cube.

“Thanks for accompanying me. You should go home now. It’s late.” Sana ruffled her junior’s hair, “See you tomorrow.”

The office had grown quieter as Sana’s steps sounded so clear. The cubes around Dahyun’s were mostly empty. She was about five steps away when Dahyun suddenly called her.

“Sunbaenim!”

Turning around, Sana saw Dahyun stood by her cube, clutching the ramen cup tightly in her hands.

“Yes?”

Dahyun hesitated, “I-it’s…”

Sana just raised her eyebrows.

“It’s,” Dahyun took a deep breath, “I think it’s also really nice working with you, Sunbaenim. And I hope you won’t get hurt anymore in the future.”

When Dahyun tucked her head and fiddled with her fingers, Sana couldn’t deny the strange, uninvited feelings creeping up in her chest. Her small smile was unconsciously formed as she nodded with a quick response.

“I’m glad you think so. Thank you and goodnight, Dahyun.”

She finally walked away with impatient steps. Looking back had never been that frightening before.

****


	11. eleven

Sana had never worn a handcuff before but she guessed it wasn’t so pleasant seeing how bothered Lim Nayeon by it.

Her hands never stopped fiddling the metal cuff around her wrists. She played it, spun her wrist inside it, or even slapped the edges to one another, anything that did in irritating the detectives and police officers in charge because of the noises.

“She can never stay still.”

Sana heard Jungyeon sighed but she didn’t stop staring at the young girl inside the interrogation room.

“She has to have something in her hands.” Jungyeon continued, “Last time I thought handcuffs would stop that habit but now she plays with it. I mean just look at her wrists. People would think she’d been abused or something.”

“You can’t stop an old habit that easily.” Sana said, turning around with a lazy smile, “Just bear with it for some more time, will you?”

Jungyeon crossed her arms, “You sure you can stand it? You flinch at the noises.”

A shrug, “I flinch at everything she does.”

Standing up, Sana took another sip of the coffee before throwing the empty cup into the small trash can. It was almost noon. She took so much time because the doctor, out of any other time, decided to do his regular checkup earlier in the morning. But he said he’d free Sana of the bandages in a few days so Sana didn’t regret coming to the hospital.

Glancing back at the interrogation room, she saw the girl dropped her head onto the desk. Sana couldn’t believe how _harmless_ Lim Nayeon looked. She was just like any other girl. And Sana would treat her like one, if only she weren’t such a pain in the ass.

It had been very unpleasant. The interrogation sessions.

Lim Nayeon surely knew how to dodge risky questions. She indeed never straight up denied her crimes but she didn’t admit them either. Jungyeon’s short temper also didn’t help. She was far less familiar to Lim Nayeon than Sana, who had been following the young girl for months. It was understandable that she couldn’t carry the interrogation.

Sana herself wasn’t so sure she could. But she was the last, and probably, only hope.

“Can you really make her confess, though?” Jackson then asked, standing beside Sana, “You’ve heard how she answered Jungyeon Sunbae’s questions, right? She literally threw everything back to our faces.”

“She won’t say it out loud, I suppose. But I at least can hope she’ll imply, right?” Sana gave Jackson a tight smile as she grasped the hem of his dark blue flannel around her body, “Let me wear this for another day. I’ll wash it later.”

“It’s basically yours at this rate. It’s fine.”

Sana only brought one piece of blank paper and a pen with her. She didn’t prepare any specific question. Interrogating Lim Nayeon would be different from any other criminals. It wasn’t something new to her. Each suspect had their own special traits and as a detective, Sana had to follow them in order to bring justice to the victim.

She ignored Dahyun’s shy _good luck_ because it wasn’t the right time for her to be confused. She would think about it later. At the moment, she only had Lim Nayeon in her head.

Knocking the door twice, Sana let herself in.

Lim Nayeon sat up straight lazily hearing the door creaked, but the moment she realized who it was, her eyes lit up.

Sana stared down at her while mentally slapping herself for thinking that Lim Nayeon looked harmless some moments ago, because definitely, the image had been long gone after the girl showed her the same sneer she had just before she knocked Sana down. Lim Nayeon had never been that _expressive_ during interrogation sessions before. Sana knew because she had watched the recorded footages.

Lim Nayeon was acting _different_ that day. Sana didn’t expect it, but she wasn’t surprised either because for the girl, Sana was also different from the other detectives.

And it was proved when Sana turned out wasn’t the one who started the conversation.

“Detective Minatozaki Sana,”

The girl greeted her after Sana took her seat.

“Fancy meeting you again. Though I’ve seen you in better state than… this.”

Sana kept mum.

The girl didn’t budge, “These are all because of me, aren’t they?”

Sana smiled.

_She loves compliments. Give her compliments._

“Splendid show you had before my eyes, Miss Lim.” Sana said, gesturing at both her bandaged arms, “It left marks all over me.”

The sneer got wider it turned into a grin, “Well, I would’ve done better but what can I expect from someone like you, right? I’ve told you to leave your clowns behind, haven’t I?”

Sana nodded, “Pardon me then. I didn’t know you despise audiences that much.”

Lim Nayeon’s grin faded as she leaned back into the backrest, both hands still on the desk. Her expression darkened as she looked at Sana with angry eyes, and Sana felt all too familiar with all the façade the girl had.

She put one on herself too, of course.

“I never say I despise audiences.” She corrected Sana’s last sentence, “If I did, I wouldn’t have welcomed you in the first place, Detective. Instead I’m just… picky. I don’t want any morons around me. They won’t appreciate my show like I want them to.”

“So how do you expect them to appreciate it?”

The girl shrugged, “You know, the usual proper reactions. Some praises will do.”

Sana raised her eyebrows, “Praises?”

“Yeah.” There was another smile, with a tongue sticking out on the side of the lips, “Don’t you just love it? Praises? You get those a lot too, Detective. Right?”

Sana nodded again, “Yeah, right.”

“How does it feel? Nice, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Sana smiled back, “Very nice.”

“So now do you understand why I only wanted you and not your clowns?”

And again, Sana nodded her head.

“I do now, Miss Lim.”

Looking satisfied, Lim Nayeon threw her head back and let out a throaty laugh. While she wasn’t looking, Sana turned her head to the mirror, hoping Jungyeon and the rest of the team could understand that _that was just how_ they should talk to Lim Nayeon.

_She likes being in control. If she wants to lead the conversation, let her. Follow her._

“I’m kind of confused, though.”

Lim Nayeon continued and Sana quickly put her poker face back on.

“You clearly are using your brain to go against me but,” She paused, her eyes trailed to both Sana’s arms, “I don’t feel any sense of threat from your presence.”

“Threat?”

“You bring no threat for me, Detective. Despite what you’re doing right now I want to remind you once more that, contrary to what you and your clowns think, I’m not afraid of you.”

“I know.”

“What?”

“I know that you’re not afraid of me.”

Lim Nayeon raised one brow, “You do?”

“I do.”

And she chortled, “A funny feeling, isn’t it? A criminal isn’t afraid of Detective Minatozaki Sana.” The small laugh filled in the suffocating silence, “But I hope you’re not too pissed at me for that. I’m clearly not at you so I hope it’s mutual.”

“No, of course not, Miss Lim. In fact,” Sana also put both arms on the desk and leaned forward, “I can’t wait for your next shows. Can I still be there when they happen?”

The sneer made another appearance as the girl answered in her lowest tone,

“You’ll be in the first row.”

It would be a lie if Sana said she wasn’t freaked out.

She knew Lim Nayeon wasn’t right in the head but her last statement made it even clearer. If the team’s sole purpose was to put the girl to behind bars then it was wrong. It would be their biggest mistake when they did so. Because Lim Nayeon couldn’t be stopped with a mere jail sentence. And if they really did the mistake, by solely _punishing_ the girl, all they would have to do was just wait until it happened _again_.

Until Sana got the front row Lim Nayeon had promised her.

“How does that sound like?”

Sana mirrored the sneer.

“Perfect, Miss Lim.”

That was just how it was. It was the closest Sana could get for Lim Nayeon to mention her crimes. _Show_. Lim Nayeon saw her murders as her shows and Sana as her audience. It made sense. She was an art student. Everything around her was related to art. And it actually gave Sana an idea.

She indeed was letting Lim Nayeon to lead their conversation but it didn’t mean she wouldn’t bait. She had had enough of the girl outsmarting her.

“I was wondering, though,”

Sana started again and Lim Nayeon looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

“You said you didn’t despise audiences,” Sana leaned back, both hands on her lap, “so does that mean you’re actually fine with their presence?”

“I let you watch, Detective. You were my audience.” Lim Nayeon answered lazily, looking irritated at Sana who kept bringing up _audiences_ , “Why do you keep asking something I’ve said a lot of times already?”

Sana chortled, “Well, I wouldn’t ask if I already knew, would I?”

The stare Lim Nayeon gave her was sharp, “Giving questions because you _genuinely_ don’t know doesn’t sound like you. What do you actually do in this room, Detective Minatozaki Sana? You ask questions that you already know the answers to. Don’t try to play stupid with me because I know you’re not.”

“So are you going to answer me or not, then?”

Another laugh as Lim Nayeon tapped her handcuffed wrists repeatedly onto the desk until Sana admitted it was hard for her not to flinch.

“Getting bold, aren’t you? Feeling stuffed up yet? Just like that one clown that’s been trying to set me on fire but backfired? What was her name again, Yoo Jungyeon?”

Turning her head to the mirror, Lim Nayeon suddenly shouted,

“Yoo Jungyeon, you there? Sending Minatozaki Sana because you gave up, huh?”

Sana closed her eyes and balled her fist. _Dear God_ , she was losing her patience.

“This is so funny,” Lim Nayeon was still laughing, banging her wrists nonstop until the desk shook uncontrollably, “you won’t get anything from me, you idiots!”

Gathering the remaining patience back, Sana let out a smile. When Jungyeon got on her nerves in interrogating the girl, Lim Nayeon was laughing too. It must’ve been amusing to her. She liked seeing people lose control. Just like what happened to Sana during the latest murder. And seeing the time it got for Sana to lose a _little bit_ of her control compared to Jungyeon, Sana understood the immediate amusement.

Lim Nayeon was expecting that. She had been holding her laugh since the moment Sana entered the room, obviously confident she could take that composed mannerism off of the detective.

And Sana almost, _almost_ let that happen.

_This girl isn’t fucking right in the head._

“But well,” Lim Nayeon’s laughter eventually died down, “I guess it won’t hurt answering something you already know, Detective. So go on. Ask me questions. I’ll answer. I don’t mind another entertainment anyway.”

Brushing her hair with a muffled sigh, Sana fixed her posture. She couldn’t stand it. She wanted to make it fast.

So she did.

“When we talk about audiences for your show, we’re not just talking about me, are we?” It was Sana’s turn to raise one brow, “You don’t despise audiences. You must’ve had some more other than just me, right?”

Silence.

Lim Nayeon brought her sharp stare back.

Sana didn’t want to back down.

“Why did you do it, Miss Lim? You said you didn’t despise them-- _us_.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I was wrong, I admit. I didn’t do as you say. My clowns were there the whole time but,” The corner of Sana’s lips lifted upward, “what did _she_ do?”

Lim Nayeon kept mum. Her amused state was no longer there.

Sana felt like it was _her_ who was amused instead.

“You’ve had more than one show. You’ve also had more than _one_ audience, Miss Lim.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, I know you know.” Sana smiled wider, “Was she not… cooperative? Did she not give you the appreciation you wanted?”

Never once in the past interrogation sessions Jungyeon mentioned the other girl. It might be intentional, because Jungyeon obviously wasn’t as informed as Sana, or it might be not, simply because Jungyeon got angry too soon before they reached that topic.

Sana didn’t want to waste time anymore.

Seeing the dark eyes staring intensely into her, Sana faked a surprised expression.

“She didn’t even _enjoy_ the show like what you thought she would, did she?”

The girl then scoffed, lips slightly twitched, “Are you comparing yourself to her?”

Shrugging, Sana leaned back, “We were both your audiences.”

“You’re _nothing_ like her.”

“But you treated us the same.”

“I never hurt her.”

“What is your definition of _hurting_ , then?” Sana finally understood how fun it was seeing someone losing their shit, “Is it limited to only this?” She raised her bandaged right arm.

“But I’m _not_ like him!”

“Well, I didn’t say that.” Sana chuckled, “I’m sure Mina would disagree too.”

The balled fists mirroring Sana’s didn’t go unnoticed.

“You said you’d answer me, Miss Lim. So, why? Why did you do that to her?”

The girl answered through gritted teeth, “She has nothing to do with this.”

“What do you mean she has nothing to do with this? She was even your _first_ audience.”

“The show was _mine_!”

“But you let her take the credit. It was under her name for so long.” Another shrug, “Why did you do that?”

Lim Nayeon didn’t answer. Her stare could bore holes into Sana’s face and the detective was getting closer to what she had been waiting for.

“You hurt her, Miss Lim. Even worse than what you did to me.” And the last word rolled off her tongue smoothly, “Because you’re a coward.”

And Sana finally got what she wanted.

“I did that for her! Everything was for her!” Sana held it when Lim Nayeon surged forward, both hands on her collar, screaming to her face, “I’m _not_ a coward!”

Gesturing that she still didn’t want to get interrupted to the mirror, Sana enjoyed her next sentences.

“You said that to me when we first met, remember?” The detective kept still, the girl’s face only some inches away from hers, “You refused to meet her when I offered you. That time I might seem stupid but guess what?”

Sana held the girl’s wrist weakly.

“You’re the stupid one, Lim Nayeon. It’s always been you. Mina didn’t need your show. Doing it for her, you said? For what? For her life to become even more miserable than it already was?”

“I _saved_ her from her nightmare! That bastard deserved it! She could’ve been happier after what I did for her!”

“But is she happy now? Are you?”

The girl yanked her even stronger, “She loves me!”

“But do you?” Sana tightened her grip on the girl’s wrist, “Do you even love her, you coward?!”

There was a piercing scream that didn’t come from her and Sana felt her head spin when suddenly the door opened, and the other detectives came in. Lim Nayeon was forcefully detached from her and it took Youngjae and Jinyoung to hold her. Sana stared blankly at the girl before Jungyeon’s firm hug from behind made her finally _breathe._

Sana should’ve felt scared. Insulted. Humiliated. At what the girl said while shouting her name over and over again. The whole office might hear it. They would also know that obviously, all those nasty words the girl threw were directed toward her.

But Sana didn’t. The more the girl screamed the more she reminded Sana of herself. Of how confused and bewildered she was during months of uncertainty, and at what the girl put Myoui Mina to go through. Sana now knew how it felt being the one in control of everything. And Sana wanted it to go both ways.

One last sneer was what she gave the girl before she went out of her sight.

And it felt _so damn good_.

-

_Were they born monsters or were they raised to be monsters?_

Sana had no idea.

Her hands had always been rough, but she felt like they became ten times rougher after the incident, especially her right palm. The bandages were gone and she could finally see her scars. Running her fingers through the long, visible, nasty scar on her right palm, Sana wondered how it actually looked like when it was a fresh wound. She would also have to say goodbye to short sleeves because her arms weren’t any better.

It wasn’t like Sana hated scars. She was a police officer. She had a lot of them, even though not as obvious as now. And they faded away from time to time, though it might take even years. The one on her right shoulder also hadn’t disappeared completely, but Sana knew they would eventually be gone.

What she didn’t like was the memories. She still remembered how she got those scars. And those were not good times. When she was younger, she was once traumatized and couldn’t touch scissors for months. And different from scars, Sana was certain the memories would never disappear.

Just like with Lim Nayeon.

Jungyeon had submitted the case to trial the day before, which meant the investigation had declared finished. It would also be another long journey because they wouldn’t handle just one murder; but three. Each case had their own prosecutors, witnesses and lawyers from Lim Nayeon’s side. Jungyeon was worried they wouldn’t get her the punishment she deserved, but Sana wasn’t very bothered by it.

It was useless. Trying to deal with Lim Nayeon without understanding the girl was useless. Just like what Jungyeon did before Sana tried. And just like what Lim Taejoon was doing in trying to get his daughter away from the mess.

Sana remembered when Myoui Mina said what a friend was for her. _Someone who understands us because they’re like us_. And now Sana finally understood.

Some time ago, Lim Taejoon came to the office in a sudden. He brought a bunch of bodyguards with him and arrogantly insisted to meet Lim Nayeon. It was actually forbidden, because he literally skipped the needed procedures but Sana let him under one condition; that they had to take the interrogation room instead of the penitentiary.

Sana didn’t know if Lim Taejoon was aware of her initial purpose; of giving no privacy for the father-daughter pair, but he agreed nonetheless, and the whole team watched.

She was curious of their relationship. Lim Nayeon _hated_ her father, according to her sketchbook. Lim Taejoon didn’t seem to care of his daughter either, at least not as much as he did to his reputation. And Sana wanted to know how they interacted with that kind of feelings toward each other.

Turned out she was nowhere near wrong. It was even worse until she almost regretted watching them.

Not once Lim Taejoon laid his hands on his daughter, but his words were like knives to the chest. They mirrored the way Lim Nayeon once insulted Sana after the interrogation. The fact that it was his own _daughter_ he was talking to made it even more frightening. Sana couldn’t comprehend how he had the heart but it was the _gene_ , she supposed.

Because Lim Nayeon didn’t budge.

She fought back, verbally, using extreme strong words that were even worse than what she used for Sana. They were a prestigious family, for God’s sake. How ironic knowing the language they used to each other probably on a daily basis.

And that was exactly what Myoui Mina meant.

Lim Nayeon was no different from her. She was being verbally abused too by her father. That was why Myoui Mina looked at the girl as a friend. Because no one else could understand her like Lim Nayeon could.

But turned out it wasn’t the only surprise Sana got from both of them.

She knew Lim Nayeon wasn’t going to stop her _shows_. She had promised Sana the front row. And even if Jungyeon doubted it at first, Sana was already sure that imprisonment wasn’t what Lim Nayeon truly deserved.

Sana just didn’t know she needed to convince Jungyeon no more after that.

_Do you even know how hard it is for me to get you out of this?_

Lim Taejoon’s voice was shaky because indeed, it wouldn’t be easy in freeing Lim Nayeon. Screw freeing, Sana wouldn’t even let him _reducing_ the sentence given. But the snigger Lim Nayeon gave him was enough to send shivers down Sana’s spine and she did not see the following sentences coming at all.

_You’re a fool, Dad. You’re next after Mom._

Sana wasn’t the only one who had her mouth hung open that time.

When Jungyeon finally decided that their job to investigate had finished, Sana agreed. The evidences were enough and clear. Though confusing, Jungyeon had made sure the prosecutors and lawyers in charge understood Lim Nayeon’s vagueness regarding her case. They were pretty much cooperative, maybe because they had the whole nation’s attention on them. It kind of benefited the team in charge in times like this.

Sighing, Sana stopped touching her right palm and crossed her arms. Jackson hadn’t arrived from the penitentiary.

The corridor where she was at was almost empty. Sana didn’t really like going through the area of higher ups. She remembered when she was offered one position which room was right behind her. Everyone’s faces were pissed when she refused almost immediately. If being in a higher position meant she could not be as free as she originally was, then Sana wouldn’t come close to it.

People changed when they went higher. Sana didn’t want to be one of them.

She was there because she had borrowed one room for her to use just for that day. She needed more privacy and the exclusive rooms in that floor seemed convenient. Though the walls weren’t soundproof, people barely went there in general so there wouldn’t be much disruption. Those higher ups were such lazy asses.

It was 12:09 PM when Sana heard footsteps coming.

Turning her head, she saw Jackson and Youngjae, with Myoui Mina. Jackson was carrying a huge handbag which Sana eyed for a split second. Sana smiled as she stood up. She didn’t count the day since the last time she met Myoui Mina, which was that last interrogation, but she was glad seeing the girl looked way better than before.

“Hello,” Sana greeted after they reached her, “how are you feeling?”

Myoui Mina looked down, “Good, Detective.”

“Why here, though?” Jackson then asked, “Are we even allowed?”

“No, but who cares,” Sana shrugged as she opened the door beside her and walked inside first, “come in.”

There was a desk and two chairs across each other, just like the interrogation room. Only there was no camera around. Myoui Mina sat down on one of the chairs and Jackson put the handbag down on the floor. The two boys then made their way out leaving just Sana and the girl inside.

“What are we doing here, Detective?”

Sana didn’t answer.

Instead she pulled out the key from her pocket and freed the girl’s wrists from the handcuffs. Myoui Mina stared up at her in confusion as she put the metal away.

“You’re no longer a culprit, remember?”

She then took out two pairs of rubber gloves from the same pocket and gave one to the girl.

“Put them on. I don’t want any more hassle with fingerprints.”

The girl did as she was told.

After putting on hers, Sana bent down and unzipped the big handbag. Myoui Mina eyed her curiously as she put the huge _sketchbook_ onto the desk. It was placed inside a transparent plastic bag because it was an important evident. Sana had to beg Jungyeon to borrow it for a few hours. Pulling the book out of the plastic bag, Sana stared down at the girl who still had the same confusion.

“Don’t touch this with your bare hand. No one but the owner has done it before and we’d like to keep it that way.”

Myoui Mina nodded, “But what is this, Detective?”

Sana stilled.

The girl didn’t know what it was.

Lim Nayeon kept it secret from her.

“This um,” Sana pursed her lips, didn’t know how to explain, “well, the other detectives aren’t… quite on the same page as me regarding this but I just… I want you to know. You need to know. And instead of directly telling you I think this,” She patted the book, “will explain everything better.”

“Everything?”

“Yes, everything. I want you to know everything. You have the rights to know. Okay?”

A hesitant nod, “Okay, Detective.”

“Okay. Don’t worry, no one’s going to bother you. I chose this place because it can give you more… privacy. I’ll be outside if you need me. Take your time, okay? The book’s very thick.”

Another hesitant nod, “Yes, Detective.”

Pulling her hands away, Sana stood still for a moment. The girl fiddled with her hands, still hadn’t touched the sketchbook.

She would need time. And it wouldn’t be short.

So Sana gave the girl one last smile before she turned around and left the room, closing the door behind her. Taking her gloves off, Sana sat down on the same bench in the corridor. Her chest felt heavy, like she wasn’t ready of how the girl’s reaction would be. Sana remembered how terrifying it was in knowing what inside the sketchbook was for the first time, and yet she was a stranger who had nothing to do with the people mentioned.

But Myoui Mina was definitely not.

Crossing her arms, Sana then threw her head back and basked in the silence surrounding her and the empty corridor.

She listened to the seconds passed through the ticking voice from the watch around her left wrist. Fifteen minutes that felt like forever passed and her eyes suddenly felt heavy, and she thought maybe, maybe it was a good time for her to doze off for a moment before--

Suddenly she heard it.

Narrowing her eyes, Sana tried to hear the faint sounds better.

The walls weren’t soundproof. The doors definitely weren’t either. The rooms were empty except for the one behind her, where Myoui Mina was at.

So Sana didn’t need to ask where the crying voice came from.

It was hesitant at first. Sana could only hear small sniffs. But when the sounds of papers being flipped got louder so did the sobs.

Sana just listened with an even heavier heart. The more seconds passed the louder they became and Sana couldn’t stand it anymore.

Shutting her eyes close, Sana hugged herself.

It would be fine. The girl needed to know. It might hurt her, but there was no other way.

Sana held her urge to interrupt because that wasn’t what she had told the girl. Instead she just sat there, eyes closed, and didn’t fight when tiredness wash over her.

Tired was more of an understatement. Sana was _exhausted_.

And judging from the sounds drifting her to sleep, Sana knew she wasn’t the only one.

****


	12. twelve

So it ended.

When Sana’s eyes fluttered open, the sobs were gone and replaced by silence. An hour and thirty-six minutes. Sana was barely asleep for an hour and thirty-six minutes, sitting on the bench by the corridor outside the room Myoui Mina was in. She didn’t know what to do next. Was it okay for her to go back inside and talk?

She waited for another ten minutes. After she heard nothing, she decided that it was already over and came back inside.

The girl was slouched on her seat, head on the desk, and for a moment Sana thought she fell asleep before Myoui Mina slowly lifted her head and stared at the detective. The sketchbook lied closed on the desk, a little bit away from the girl. The rubber gloves were dismissed. The eyes were swollen.

Putting on her own rubber gloves, Sana took the sketchbook, placed it inside the transparent plastic bag before putting it safely inside the handbag. Pulling off the gloves, Sana then sat down across the girl.

Myoui Mina kept her head down. Small sniffs could still be heard and Sana wanted to do something about it but she was too damn awkward all she could do was giving the girl a small pack of tissue from her pocket. A croaked _thank you_ was muttered and Sana only tightly smiled at that.

“Are you okay?”

A small nod.

“Is it okay if we talk a bit?”

Another small nod.

“Okay.” Sana took a deep breath and crossed her arms, trying to find a best way to start but when she came up with nothing, she just asked what was on her head, “Did you know?”

Myoui Mina kept mum.

“About all of those, did you know?”

She shook her head, “No, Detective.”

“Can I hear it from you, then?”

The girl pursed her slightly shaky lips.

“It’s just you and me now. There’s no camera around, no one watching us. I’m not expecting anything from you. I just want to know your perspective of everything.”

The silence was suffocating.

“Can you tell me?”

The girl finally gave her another nod, “Yes, Detective.”

Sana indeed expected nothing. It wasn’t her purpose in the first place. She just wanted to _talk._ She wouldn’t try to take notes or record it. For all those wasted months Myoui Mina spent unfairly behind bars, she had no one to talk to, to properly listen to her. Knowing how complicated and hurtful things for her were, Sana just wanted the girl to let it out. She wouldn’t dig as many as she could. Everything was up to Myoui Mina.

And she would do nothing but listen.

“What is she to you? Lim Nayeon. What is she to you?”

“She’s…” Myoui Mina’s voice was way thinner than usual, “she’s a lot of things to me.”

Sana didn’t question that.

“More than a friend. Someone I like. Someone I love. Someone… someone who’s just like me.”

“Is that why you like her? Because she’s like you?”

“Yes.” Sana hoped the tissue would be enough when the girl looked like she was about to cry again, “There’s no one like her.”

“Is it the same? The story she told in the sketchbook to the one you’ve always known, are they the same?”

“No. No, they’re not.”

“There are a lot of things you didn’t know about her, aren’t there?”

“I just…” A sob broke out and the girl used her sleeve to wipe her eyes, “I… I feel like I don’t know her-- I never truly know her.”

Sana balled her fists on her lap seeing the girl slowly broke down in front of her. She was only _nineteen_. At that age Sana was still studying in the police academy. She found everything enjoyable, albeit a little struggle because her family didn’t approve her decision and didn’t give enough support she’d needed. But it was nothing to what Myoui Mina was facing at the moment.

At the age of nineteen, she had to face an accusation of murdering her own stepfather. She had to deal with everything with no one backing her up. And it wasn’t like she had a decent life outside. She didn’t. She had nothing.

Sana fought her urge to look away from the girl because it would be rude, even if she couldn’t stand it. The tug in her chest kept getting heavier.

“I wanted to tell you-- I wanted to tell you everything so that you wouldn’t have to work too hard but… that means I-I’m blaming her and I couldn’t do that.”

“You didn’t want to blame her?”

“No.” She shook her head, “I also thought that you wouldn’t believe me because I… I didn’t have proof. It w-would just waste your time. Nobody believed me since the start so I t-thought you’d be the same. I’m sorry, Detective.”

Bringing her right forearm to cover her eyes, the girl sobbed. Sana wanted to coo her, to tell her not to cry, but she kept still. It would be better if the girl cried. After all these time, not even once she shed a tear. Sana wanted her to be the little girl she actually was. It was taken from her for too long.

“I understand.” Sana said, after the sobs had died down and the girl brought her arm down, “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

To think about it, Sana wouldn’t have it easier with Myoui Mina telling her everything either. Without evidence, Sana couldn’t go anywhere. She couldn’t even prove how both girls were related. And on top of that, she probably wouldn’t figure out the Busan case. Apart from the green window paper which was her luck, everything she got eventually led her to Lim Nayeon and the murders she had committed.

“You told me she once said she wanted to kill your stepfather.” Sana started again, after making sure the girl’s sobs had stopped.

A nod.

“Can you tell me more about that?”

Another nod, “There was… one time. I… sometimes I-- she picked me up or drove me home so she’d meet my stepfather. We-- he and I were never on good terms since Mom died so we-- even in front of others too-- talked rudely to each other. She saw it a lot of times. She knew about that all along.”

Sana smiled at her as an urge to continue when the girl hesitated.

“She’s always expressed her dislike toward him.” She sniffed, looking down to her joined hands, “But that time suddenly she said she… wanted him dead. It would-- it would be nice if she could… kill him so that I wouldn’t… suffer again.”

“She said that?”

“Yes.” Myoui Mina looked up a little bit, “Then I was… a little bit… surprised. I mean, I hate him too but I’ve never thought of… killing him. But I didn’t say anything I just-- she-- all this time she has a short temper so I thought she was just angry and… she didn’t… mean what she said.”

“So she gets angry easily?”

The girl nodded.

“I see. When did that happen?”

“It was… spring. About… a year ago.”

“Did she say anything else about murder after that?”

“No, never. Just that one time.”

The urge of murder had been there the whole time. It wasn’t completely rushed. Well, indeed the murder wasn’t planned, but it didn’t mean Lim Nayeon had never thought of it before and suddenly wanted to kill him out of the blue. She had expressed her dislike toward Han Sungwoon, had mentioned of wanting him die once, it was obvious. She had wanted it for a long time. And she eventually would do it.

“I’m very curious about one thing,” Sana still hadn’t got her answer, “and I think you’re the only one who can answer me about it.”

The girl hesitantly looked up at her with questioning eyes.

“The gray gloves.”

And her eyes dropped again.

“Can you tell me about her gray gloves?”

“It’s…” Myoui Mina bit her lip, “actually, it’s… I… I gave them to her.”

Sana raised her eyebrows, “You did?”

“Yes…”

“How--”

“She likes-- handicraft. She makes handicraft things. A-and from what I’ve heard they need to wear gloves because… the knife might hurt them. But she never… paid attention to it. She used to make them without wearing gloves so… her hands… they… bled often. So then I… bought it for her a-as a present.”

Sana’s lips parted, “So they were from you?”

“Yes, Detective.”

“How often did she wear them?”

“She… brought them everywhere with her. She wore them almost all the time. Because… because I didn’t like seeing her scars.”

_Scars._

Sana remembered something.

“Scars?”

“From making those handicrafts, Detective.”

_You have new scars. Wear your gloves tomorrow._

“So she wore them because you didn’t like seeing her scars?”

Another nod, “I just didn’t want her to get hurt anymore.”

“You don’t like seeing her getting hurt?”

“No, Detective.”

_Because you also like, even love her._

Sana nodded as she looked down to her lap, sighing lowly. She couldn’t precisely describe how she felt of everything. Lim Nayeon was the cause of Myoui Mina’s misery these past months and yet she was the only source of happiness the latter had. And even if Lim Nayeon wasn’t someone who could fully grasp onto her sanity, she was not mistaken on one thing; that the one she loved the most indeed loved her back, though the love she got wasn’t the one she wanted.

“She wore them that time too, didn’t she?” Sana asked again, “That night, when everything happened.”

The nod was hesitant, so did the slow _yes_.

“She said she did it for you.”

Sana still remembered it vividly.

“She said everything was for you. She wanted to save you from your nightmare. She wanted you to be _happy_.”

Myoui Mina’s lips quivered again.

“We-- were wrong, Detective.” She muttered, “We were wrong since the start.”

“How so?”

“Remember when I told you what a friend is for me?”

Sana stilled. Of course she did.

“Someone who understands me because they’re just like me.” The girl said before Sana could answer, “And it’s exactly what… what I thought she was to me. What she thought I was to her.”

Another tear escaped her eye and Myoui Mina quickly wiped it with her already wet sleeve.

“We never understood each other. Our… our views of everything have always been different. We were wrong since the beginning. I realized it after… after it happened.”

“That it wasn’t what you wanted, was it?” It was getting harder to bear with her heavy heart but Sana kept still, “What she wanted, wasn’t what you did, was it?”

When the girl gave her one last nod Sana couldn’t stand it. She then stood up, walked to the girl and gave her a hug similar to what they had in the last interrogation. Sana had handled a lot of complicated cases, including the ones with false accusations, but she had never been this emotionally invested before. Of course she felt sympathy toward the victims and their families, but she never crossed the barrier she made between herself as a detective and as a human being.

She had put both feet outside the line for the moment, it seemed.

Letting Myoui Mina pour her emotion out once more, Sana glanced at the window. She had to stare for a few seconds to make sure she wasn’t wrong when she saw the snow was falling.

Sana then hugged the girl tighter, wondering if she could give a tiny bit of joy for her in the rest of the day.

-

Sometimes Sana really felt grateful of Momo’s presence as a fellow Japanese-Korean citizen.

Leaning on a random desk with her arms crossed, Sana looked at Momo, talking fluently in her actual main language, with Myoui Mina sitting across her. There were two ramen cups and two cans of soda on the desk. The girl looked a little bit nervous, sitting in the middle of a huge room filled with busy detectives, but when she caught Sana staring at her with a smile, she became more at ease, somehow.

Momo had always been better in basic human interaction than her, anyway. Sana didn’t mind when Momo, who coincidentally bumped into Myoui Mina and her in the corridor, asked to take the girl with her for some talks and ramen cups. They were the only ones fluent in Japanese, as far as Sana knew. Sana kept staring for some time before Jungyeon suddenly came, bringing Jinyoung with her.

Sana uncrossed her arms and patted the handbag on the desk she was leaning onto, “Here. We didn’t touch it, don’t worry.”

Jinyoung bowed a bit before he took it.

“Bring that back. Also tell the others to gather now for a short meeting. I need some small talk with the team.” Jungyeon said.

“Yes, Sunbaenim.” Jinyoung nodded as he left with the handbag.

Sana frowned, “Now?”

“Yes, now. It’s important. Why? Do you have something to do?”

Sana didn’t answer as she turned her head to where Momo and Myoui Mina were talking. Jungyeon followed her gaze and raised her eyebrows at the sight.

“Ah, Myoui Mina. Good to see her but,” Jungyeon jerked her head back to Sana, “just now I got a confirmation from the prosecutors that the trial will start in ten days. I also need to check the mental health examination’s results, so yeah, I need some talk.”

“Today is the first snow.” Sana said, putting both hands on the desk by her sides.

“Yeah, I know but so what?”

“Let’s not have a meeting during the first snow.”

“What?” Jungyeon made a face, “Since when did you care about first snow? You’re even grumpier during winter, you know.”

Sana just lopsidedly smiled at that and Jungyeon understood.

“Look, I know she’s innocent but Myoui Mina is, technically, still arrested so you can’t simply bring her to anywhere other than the ones she’s permitted to be. Besides, you’re not allowed to drive yet. Chief will be furious.”

“Then I’ll bring Jackson and Youngjae with me, even Momo.”

“You’re not serious about taking her away for the first snow, are you?”

“Of course I am.”

Jungyeon sighed, “Minatozaki, you can always take her anytime you want. I really--”

“But today’s the first snow.”

“And since _when_ did you care?”

“I’m just--”

“I won’t disturb you in any other days, but today is important. I’ve already gathered all my kids. You can take her back to the penitentiary, then go straight back here.”

“She’s been in there for almost six months, Jungyeon. No one to talk to, nowhere to go to, nothing.”

“I know, but--”

“I won’t just leave her back inside for like, ten days then take her straight for the trial. That, if she’s even needed in the first one, what if she’s not? What if she needs to wait for the second, third, fourth, I don’t know, fifth trial?” Sana stood up straight, “Lim Nayeon has three murder cases going on for her. We still don’t know when Myoui Mina will be declared not guilty. She might need to wait for another month or two while we’re at it.”

“We all know it’s going to be like that for her.”

“Yeah, and that’s why I want to do this.”

“You can just visit her regularly like--”

“She’s only nineteen.” Sana’s tone was raised a bit, “She doesn’t have anyone with her. Mom died, stepfather died, no friend, no relative, come on. You know I’m not usually like this so just… let me. This is the least I can do for her.”

Jungyeon still had her frown when she glanced at Myoui Mina again.

“You also know that she can’t speak Korean that well.” Sana continued, looking down to her feet, “What if when the trial comes, she can’t speak for herself? What if she can’t even do anything to begin with? Under all the stress she’s been receiving, it’s not impossible.”

At the corner of her eyes, Sana spotted someone watching both Jungyeon and her. She took a peek and found Dahyun in the corner. Her junior then immediately looked down, pretending she wasn’t looking.

Sana didn’t realize she also pretended she didn’t notice.

“You know what,” Jungyeon turned back at her, still as grumpy, “you’re right.”

Sana smiled instantly, “So I can--”

“Man, I can’t imagine what we’re going to do if she doesn’t talk in trials. Might as well declare everyone not guilty!” Jungyeon exclaimed loudly, that did in making the whole room became quiet as she walked away from Sana, “You can go but take me with you too!”

With a smile, Sana looked back at the girl. She returned her the same.

-

Sometimes when Sana was feeling like everything was okay, she became insecure instead.

It happened a lot in post-difficult and complicated cases, just like this one.

The case indeed hadn’t finished, and a bunch of trials would be another long process ahead, but at least the burden had been lifted off a little bit, and Sana could finally breathe.

Things seemed to be going well. After the first snow day when Sana brought Myoui Mina to breathe some fresh air outside the office and penitentiary, the other detectives beside Jackson, Youngjae and her finally could grasp the concept of an alleged culprit-turned-innocent thingy for the girl. They no longer treated her like a murderer, lost the constant side-eyes, even volunteered themselves to take care of her if Sana didn’t have time.

They had a meeting the next day and talked about their next steps. Lim Nayeon had gone through some mental health checkup but the result wasn’t finalized yet, though Jungyeon had already talked to the psychiatrist in charge.

“She has the symptoms,” Jungyeon said, pointing at some papers she spread on the round table in the room C, “of a sociopath.”

Though, there were still some things that confused the psychiatrist. The fact that Lim Nayeon could carry an affection toward someone, which was Myoui Mina, for a pretty long time, even on-going until that day, was seen as fascinating. Though the definition of _affection_ that Lim Nayeon had might be a little too extreme, but it didn’t make less of the meaning.

“But other than that, we can be sure.” Jungyeon continued, “Minus to Myoui Mina, she has no empathy, no sense of guilt, has some strong façade that can fool anyone, not to mention she’s very smart, clever, calculative… and maybe, has a huge desire for revenge.”

Jackson raised his eyebrows, “Revenge?”

“Well, there’s a big possibility of Lim Nayeon not being treated well in her family since she was a kid. We clearly saw how her father spoke to her, and how she spoke back to him further proves of how she was raised at home. Her mother was just the same, if not worse. She cheated with another man, did those blackmail and such. Worse is, they all hid behind the _prestigious family_ image, acted like everything was fine. It took a toll on her.”

Jungyeon then grabbed a pen and started explaining while doodling on one paper,

“There were several wrong ways to raise a child that happened, the psychiatrist said. First, there’s an overly ambitious parent, which is Lim Taejoon, who basically forced medical studies down Lim Nayeon’s throat all the damn time. We indeed don’t know since when, but with that much knowledge, I doubt she only studied for like two, three years. It’s way more than that.”

“It also proves her intelligence.” Sana added, “She has no passion in medical studies but can still manage to excel in it.”

“Right.” Jungyeon agreed, “There’s this high expectation for Lim Nayeon in her whole life. Looking at her records in school, there’s no need to doubt her brain. She’s _really_ smart, it even scares me. She speaks decent Japanese too, according to Myoui Mina, despite only learning it from senior high onward. That one is already a huge burden, not to mention the whole other fiascos like mom cheating, mom blackmailing, basically mom doesn’t care while dad is literally an asshole, also having to act to the world like everything was okay when they weren’t, and all. The stress she got from all of those piled up for years.”

“During the interview, she admitted of feeling relieved, relaxed, basically content, after she committed a murder.” Sana remembered that one phrase from the sketchbook, “She only got those feelings from murders, and it’s temporary. That’s why she did it again, and again.”

“Only from murders? Not from Myoui Mina too?”

“She was asked about that. She dodged the question, as usual, but she gave hints that the feelings were different. Both were pleasant, but different kind of pleasant. And since Myoui Mina wasn’t around anymore after the first murder, Lim Nayeon had no choice but to do more murders to get some pleasant feelings in her life again. Basically both made her _high_.”

“Point is, she’s never been happy her whole life. Well, minus Myoui Mina but that’s still kind of questionable.” Jungyeon put the pen down, “So that’s why this result is still not finalized yet. There are maybe some more check-ups but the prosecutors told us to postpone it at least until when half of the trials is done. Because they’re afraid it may reduce the sentence.”

Sana frowned, “You know damn well I don’t agree with that, don’t you.”

“I know, but what can we do? I’ve negotiated, Minatozaki. They actually wanted to postpone it until _all_ of the trials have finished, basically until she’s officially sentenced, but I objected. I understand that imprisonment isn’t what she deserves. I realize she won’t stop, but instead she’ll just wait until she’s freed to go back murdering people. I know that, but they don’t. The prosecutors don’t, and won’t. Especially now this case is huge, they don’t want to lose their image. Worse is, Lim Nayeon’s lawyers and attorneys. How many are there in total?”

Dahyun flipped through her notes before she answered, “Seven, Sunbaenim.”

“That. She has seven goddamn lawyers backing her up. Some are pretty famous too, I heard. Though I had insisted, and even showed the interrogation footages showing them how Lim Nayeon never truly denied her crimes, I understand the prosecutors’ burden. Innocent until proven guilty, remember? Just… imagine the public’s reaction when it’s clear that Lim Nayeon wouldn’t face the expected imprisonment since the start. It will also reflect badly on us, somehow. Even though backed up with the proof of her mental health state, the public won’t even care.”

“I agree.” Jackson nodded, “Not everyone knows the detail of this case and how the law works. What the prosecutors want to do is like, bringing the public to believe Lim Nayeon had committed crimes, but then also making them acknowledge the cause, which is the thing we’ve been discussing, and eventually will lead to her mental health, and maybe, other consequences rather than mere imprisonment.”

“There’s nothing we can do, anyway.” Jungyeon sighed, leaning onto her seat’s backrest, “We can’t interfere much when it comes to trial. What I feel bad for is actually the fact that Lim Taejoon brings seven lawyers for his daughter. Imagine the money he’s been spending for something so useless. At this rate, I kind of expect some bribery as well. Also the irony, that one of the victim is his own wife.”

Sana put her palm under her chin, exhaling a heavy breath. She wasn’t worried of Lim Nayeon and her seven lawyers. She was sure there would be no difficulty in the trial. What she was still worried for was Myoui Mina, who would still be under arrest until finally declared not guilty.

“What about Myoui Mina’s lawyer?” She then asked, “Any news?”

“Still the same lawyer as the last time, Sunbaenim.” Youngjae answered, “He also apologized to you through me when I talked to him, saying he regretted being upset at your decision to postpone the trial last time.”

“It’s fine. He knows what to do, right?”

“Of course, Sunbaenim.”

“It makes me wonder,” Jungyeon suddenly said, “I’ve never really thought about it but just now I did.”

“Something about Myoui Mina?”

“Yeah. What do you think will happen when she’s present in the trial?”

Everyone went silent suddenly.

“You all know how… affected Lim Nayeon was when Minatozaki mentioned Myoui Mina that time. She suddenly lost her façade at a simple mention of a name. I just wonder how it will be for her when Myoui Mina is actually there in the same room, even worse as a witness, putting the blame on her.”

“That’s a huge burden for Myoui Mina too.” Sana crossed her arms on the table, “The affection is mutual. She also has feelings for Lim Nayeon. I’m almost positive that things will not go easy for her in the trial later. That’s why I’m worried.”

“We’ll take care of her.” Jackson assured her, “I’ve also told the lawyer multiple times to treat her well. We’ll make sure she’ll be okay through the process, Sana.”

Sana knew that. And of course she believed in the team, even though they still couldn’t erase her insecurity.

It would definitely stay longer, and Sana wished it wouldn’t.

-

The snow kept getting heavier. Sana couldn’t go anywhere.

She didn’t know why Chief forbade her to drive. Her arms and legs were okay. She had some nasty scars, for sure, but they were just scars. They were healed. Though they kind of made her feel more self-conscious somehow. Of course she didn’t want to show her scars to anyone. She wore long sleeves all the time. Also gloves if needed, because it was winter after all. She still had no idea what she’d do in summer later, though.

There was no one in the meeting room when Sana woke up from her short nap. She remembered the others were busy with their other cases, so that was why she took a nap there so she wouldn’t bother anyone. Her own cases, other than Lim Nayeon and Myoui Mina, didn’t take too much time on her. She was originally appointed as a team leader for one case, but was replaced because of the injuries.

She noticed Jackson’s dark blue flannel was draped on her. She didn’t know who did it, but still thanked them in her head.

She kind of felt thirsty after. Putting on the flannel that basically belonged to her at that point, she went out of the meeting room. There was a coffee vending machine in the front office. She didn’t drink much coffee but it increased in cold weather like the moment. She met some other detectives and police officers along the way, before stopping in front of the vending machine, roaming her pocket for some coins.

It was near the front entrance of the office so she could see the snow falling. She kind of felt bad seeing the ones outside. It must’ve been cold.

Plunging the coin needed into the machine after she had put the cup onto its place, she pressed one button and waited. The sound of the front entrance door being opened suddenly with the cold wind suddenly blew inside made her shiver as she glanced once more to see who it was. The said person bowed to some police officers before halting her steps when she saw Sana.

Sana stared back at Dahyun silently. She noticed the pale hands clutching a paper by the chest. She was cold.

Seeing the cup was finally filled, Sana took it and shoved it to her junior. Dahyun stared at her with a little bit of a shock, but Sana guessed she finally understood not to refuse everything Sana gave her, so she hesitantly grasped it from Sana’s hand.

Still without talking, Sana placed another plastic cup, plunged another coin, pressed the same button, and waited again. Dahyun was still there, not moving, didn’t even drink the coffee, and Sana felt strangely tense all over. When the coffee was done, Sana grabbed it and turned to her junior once more.

Dahyun looked like she had something to say but was hesitating. But then again, she always looked like that in front of Sana.

Realizing it was silly of how both of them just stood there without talking to each other, Sana walked closer and brushed the remaining snow off of Dahyun’s head.

This somehow startled Dahyun a little as she unconsciously took a step away. Sana realized how close they were and quickly pulled her hand back.

“Drink it.” She said, feeling the urge to just walk away, “It’s not poisoned.”

She had just turned around when Dahyun suddenly called her.

“Sunbaenim,”

So she turned back again, “Hmm?”

“Did I…” Dahyun hesitated, as usual, but Sana was unbelievably patient, “did I maybe… do something wrong?”

Sana raised her eyebrows, “What?”

“Did I somehow make a mistake?”

“No.” Sana’s answer was quick, “Why do you think so?”

“It’s just…”

“I didn’t scold you or anything, did I?”

“No, you didn’t, Sunbaenim, it’s just…” Dahyun looked down onto the floor, “you seem to be avoiding me lately.”

Well, Sana was about to say _no_ , but she knew damn well she would be lying.

It was true.

It would be ridiculous if Sana denied it, because just now she was about to _walk away_ again from her junior. It had been going on like that for some time. Sana admitted, to herself at least, of having very questionable feelings when she was around Dahyun and unknowingly developed a tendency to ignore the latter beyond their work as a team. And Sana knew Dahyun wasn’t stupid. She was indeed young, but she wasn’t that clueless little girl she seemed to be.

Sana herself didn’t want to be stupid. She was way older than Dahyun. She should be acting wiser.

But apparently, she wasn’t capable of that either.

“Do I?”

_God, she sounds so dumb._

“Umm, well…”

Seeing Dahyun’s confused expression made her feel bad.

“Maybe because it’s been hectic these days.” Sana added, with an awkward smile, “If you feel so then, don’t. We work in the same team, remember? Of course I’m not avoiding you.”

_Way to go, Minatozaki._

“Right. Maybe it’s just me.” Dahyun bit her lip, was still hesitant to look at Sana in the eye, “I’m sorry, Sunbaenim. It was unnecessary.”

“It’s fine. Let’s just go back.”

“Back?”

“I mean, if you don’t have anything else to do then we can go back to the meet-- room C.”

“Oh, yes. Sure.” Dahyun then gestured Sana to go first, “After you, Sunbaenim.”

Because Sana left her phone and remaining belongings in the meeting room, she went there first with Dahyun following behind. Sana found it hard to hold her sigh when she was inside with Dahyun, just the two of them, and decided not to waste time by gathering her belongings faster.

“Did you write all of this, Sunbaenim?”

Dahyun suddenly asked, pointing at the whiteboard. It had pictures pasted on it, with Sana’s handwriting all over, leaving no empty space.

“Yeah, I did. It’s very messy, in no particular order.” Sana moved to beside Dahyun, staring at the whiteboard, “Something other detectives aren’t very fond of because they can’t read it without me around.”

She indeed didn’t have the best penmanship.

But Dahyun smiled at that, “I don’t think it’s bad, though.”

“What?”

“I read somewhere in the internet that smart people tend to have messy handwritings. I guess you’re very smart, Sunbaenim.”

Sana chortled, “No. I’m just unorganized in general.”

“But still undoubtedly smart.”

“No, just…” Sana, amused, shook her head with a smile and turned her head to stare at Dahyun, but the smile was gone at the way her junior grinned up at her, and was replaced by a strange hesitation instead, “no, I’m just… it’s just--”

The door being opened suddenly startled them both. When Jackson came inside the room, Sana had to mentally thank him.

“Oh, hey.” Jackson smiled at both girls, “Didn’t know you’re here, Dahyun. Jungyeon Sunbae is looking for you, and you too, Sana.”

Sana frowned a little, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, she just wants all of us to eat dinner together. With some discussions, she said. And she doesn’t want take-outs this time. Which is great because when else can we eat outside in peace, right?”

“Ah, right. That sounds great, Sunbaenim.”

Jackson nodded, “Indeed. Let’s go now.”

“You two go first.” Sana quickly said, “I uh, have a little something to do for a moment. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“You sure? Want us to wait?”

“No, no. Just… just go first. I won’t take long.”

“Okay. Don’t take too long, we’re all hungry.” Jackson said playfully then opened the door for Dahyun to go first, “Let’s go, Dahyun.”

Dahyun turned back at Sana for a split second with her questioning eyes, before she obeyed Jackson and soon both of them left Sana alone in the room.

Sana then sat down slowly on the round table, sighing.

She can’t be feeling like that. She _shouldn’t_ be feeling like that.

She knew how the feelings had always been there lately, but she didn’t pay too much attention to it because of the lack of interaction, that she did on purpose. And now it happened once again, in the span of mere minutes, and Sana became bothered to no end because of it.

_It can’t be,_ Sana told herself. _Really can’t be._

Sana might not be the best in figuring these things quickly, but she wasn’t someone inexperienced. She _knew_ what those feelings were, or what they would be later if she didn’t stop them. And it frightened her, it made her feel all kinds of paranoid, that she wouldn’t be able to control everything, and she would end up as what she was afraid she would be.

She would lose it. She had to lose it.

And if the only way for her to get rid of those feelings was by ignoring and avoiding Dahyun, then she would do so.

Because it just wasn’t the correct time. And if it indeed were, Dahyun wasn’t the one. Dahyun _couldn’t_ be the one because what would that make _them_?

It was indeed ridiculous, even a little childish on Sana’s part with the whole avoiding thingy. She wouldn’t blame Dahyun for noticing. Even other parties other than them would notice, if they paid enough attention. She supposed it would be easier once the case was over, and both of them wouldn’t work together anymore, at least for some time enough for Sana to redeem herself. Or at least, she hoped she could.

One thing Sana was sure that, it was the first time. Some other people, juniors, seniors, even some outside the job, had done so much more than what Dahyun did for her-- then again, what did Dahyun do, anyway? If Sana took solely being honest of her adoration as something beyond that, then clearly, it was her own fault since the first place.

Sana sighed once more before she gulped down the coffee in one go. She was not used to all of that. Her job never required her to be familiar with this unnecessary part of life. And even though Sana was never an expert to begin with, she knew damn well the boundaries she should never, ever cross.

_Get your shit together, Minatozaki._

Throwing the empty cup into the small trash can, Sana put her whole belongings into her purse and left the room in a hurry.

****


	13. thirteen

It had been hard.

Very hard, even, until to the point of Sana doubting if anything could work out. She had high expectations at the start. She didn’t share the same worries and concerns the other had. It was no one but her who kept insisting it wouldn’t be difficult. She dismissed the other side’s power, dismissed their efforts, dismissed the obvious because she believed in herself too much.

And most importantly, she dismissed the façade.

It was one of her worst feelings. Later grew to be one of her worst moments in life. She admitted, to herself at least, that she had been outsmarted, _again_.

The prosecutors weren’t impressed. Of course they weren’t. It was too unpredictable. _She_ was too unpredictable. No one, not even Sana could guess what was next. Almost everything didn’t go as planned, and it did in making the prosecutors lose their mind. _A humiliation_ , one of them said, although Sana didn’t think it was too that extent, honestly.

The detectives, including Sana, weren’t any better either. They now hated being present in trials, which was okay since they were not actually obliged to be. Those lawyers and attorneys’ faces were irritating, as if they had done something very useful. The fact was, they didn’t. They never did. It was pretty much obvious how they couldn’t keep up with their own _client_ when she defended herself and twisted everyone’s words with such ease. Kind of embarrassing actually, for the few who noticed. But because they were in her favor, they had no problem with that, and indirectly took credit of it.

_Pathetic._

It was countless. The amount of times Sana sighed in _one_ trial was probably the same as what she got in weekly basis. The urge to show up in front of the accused one and _trigger_ her to spill everything out was too strong until she often excused herself way before the session ended. She held herself, though, fully knowing she couldn’t interfere much in trials because her job basically had finished.

But everyone else was so painfully _clueless_ of what to do, it frustrated her. One trial was bearable. The second one was a little bit harder. The third one was even worse. And the fourth one was where Sana finally snapped.

Jungyeon had shouted at her after, replacing Chief when he wasn’t there, as usual, being the only ones who could raise their voices at Minatozaki Sana with no fear. It wasn’t just because Sana had put herself into others’ business uninvited, but mostly because of what she had said, or more like _suggested_.

_They already have an arranged system, and you ruined everything, Minatozaki!_

Sana knew that. It wasn’t her first time following the trial process. She was well-aware of the procedures that had to be followed.

But could she just stay still seeing how confused everyone was?

She then asked Jungyeon of how she felt. When Jungyeon didn’t answer, Sana told her about her own feelings instead. Because as a fellow detective, theirs wouldn’t be much different. They felt the same things, the same emotion, only Sana was less tolerant than Jungyeon who dealt quietly with them.

Sana just couldn’t.

Because, if she, the detective, felt that miserable, then how about the innocent one who was left behind in an endless uncertainty for four goddamn trials?

Sana was indeed furious. It wasn’t just a spontaneous act. She was in her right mind when she snapped. She knew what was coming out of her mouth and she _meant_ it.

_You don’t care about her! None of you truly does!_

They had been going in circles. They found no edge but stubbornly kept going. And none of them realized it. It was taking too much time, and Sana was very, very disappointed that no one, except for Jackson, Youngjae and her, actually thought of the wrongly-accused one, ignored her for four long trials, never once mentioned her when Sana expected they would.

Sana pushed away the regret creeping in her for contemplating for too long. She indeed could’ve taken less time if Jackson weren’t such a hesitant coward. She wasn’t even going to mention Youngjae because boy literally went nervous at Sana herself, let alone at an outside party such as the prosecutors.

But then again, she too, was hesitating. Maybe because she thought Jungyeon already had another plan. That was kind of stupid of her too, putting too much trust on others. One thing she was sure of, that no one, be it the detective or prosecutor or even the judge himself, wanted things to be draggy. The whole public’s eyes were on them. They all carried the same huge burden. It was a common sense for them wanting to finish everything quickly.

So that was why Sana barged in with a pretty crazy suggestion. Ruining the prosecutors’ plan, yes, but not entirely. She just urged them to fast-forward it. Because it would happen nonetheless, just in a little longer time that Sana couldn’t bear anymore.

She wanted them to meet. Both the accused ones. She didn’t ask for any specific treatments, instead she only wanted to just make them be in the same room, able to see each other directly, and everything else was up to the procedure.

Of course the other party wasn’t very fond of that suggestion. But Sana simply explained she only wanted to lift some burden off of their shoulders. Days, even weeks, of trying to pull some sense out of the suspect’s mouth was tiring. Not to mention the publicity of everything in the case and the huge power they were fighting against. Sana wouldn’t blame them if they couldn’t think straight. She would be the same too.

Sana wasn’t sure of the outcome, but at least she had tried. For three days she sat alone in her cube, hoping that even if things didn’t turn out the way she wanted, she could at least, do something for the girl staying in the penitentiary waiting for her turn. Something, anything, to make her feel better, to make things better for her.

After three days, her phone rang violently out of nowhere. Little did she knows, her suggestion got accepted. The next trial would be pushed forward. And she was asked to be present, to be fully responsible of the unwanted things that might happen because it was _her_ idea at the first place.

Sana didn’t mind. Her answer was as fast as her heartbeat.

And everything went by so quick since then.

-

“Excuse me, sorry,”

Sana mumbled those repetitive words as she once again pushed some people out of her way. It was too crowded and she couldn’t go through. People had always been curious, but that day was worse. Before this, everyone was relatively calm. Noisy, but at least they didn’t chat out loud with each other and gather longer than expected around the medium-sized building. There were too many people and Sana couldn’t even _move_.

_The situation is very chaotic with people refusing to leave._

_Security guards seem to be facing difficulty in emptying the area around the court room._

_Understandable, because something unexpected happened at today’s trial._

It was funny how those reporters were telling stories of how people _refused_ to leave when they themselves were still there, with their annoying, huge ass cameras and microphones. Sana avoided them because it would be inappropriate if the camera caught her, but they were just _everywhere._ But well, at least they didn’t lie.

One more person hissed at her ear for being pushed away but Sana didn’t care. Everything was already chaotic even before the trial ended. She added nothing by pushing people away. She just wanted to see Myoui Mina.

_We are still waiting for some statements from the suspect’s attorney about the trial earlier_.

_It is confirmed that the suspect’s father, Lim Taejoon, has left the location just now._

“Minatozaki Sana,”

Sana showed her ID to the security guards and they nodded their heads as one of them opened the door for her. There were a few small rooms along the corridor. Where Myoui Mina stayed was a bit far and on the left. Sana ran.

Just like what the prosecutors had asked her, Sana was present in the fifth trial. Unlike the past ones, she didn’t leave before it ended. And she didn’t do it solely because they wanted her to, but because she knew she was needed for more than just being _fully responsible_. If she weren’t around, she wasn’t sure if Myoui Mina would even dare to go inside the same room as the suspect, Lim Nayeon.

The prosecutors luckily followed Sana’s instruction; of not telling Lim Nayeon’s side about Myoui Mina’s presence. It was bound to happen, of course, when they reached Han Sungwoon’s case, but Sana made it earlier than expected. They had wasted four long trials just on Baek Hyukmin’s case so why not finish them all in one more trial?

Sana had no idea if it would work. She just held onto one thing; how Lim Nayeon’s whole demeanor changed by just a mention of the _name_. Myoui Mina could be the key. She was an important role in the series of murder. In fact, she was the first one who freed, although not on purpose, Lim Nayeon’s urge to murder out of the cage. Sana wanted everyone to understand that Myoui Mina wasn’t just some other girl in the case. She was way more than that.

Panting tiredly, Sana finally found the room and pushed the door open without knocking.

The two people inside turned their heads instantly at her. So did the securities and staffs around the room. Myoui Mina’s lawyer stood up straight after bending down, maybe to give a cup of tea for the girl sitting down hugging herself in that small room. Sana noticed the handcuffs were gone, and both clenched fists were trembling. So were the lips. And the heavy breaths that filled in the silence.

_How dare you!_

Sana gestured for the lawyer to give them some time alone. He understood and left quietly.

_You already know how I feel!_

Not once Myoui Mina reached a relaxed state since Sana informed her that she would be present in the fifth trial. She had been very tense, and that day was the peak of her building nervousness.

Nothing helped her ever since she stepped inside the room and sat down on the hot seat right in front of the judge. Her words were stuttered, hesitant, incoherent at times. The lawyers attacking her were crude, overly demanding, and Sana wanted to punch them in the face one by one. Luckily Myoui Mina’s own lawyer was very much capable in explaining the evidences of her innocence. He was working extra hard, only him against many, but he didn’t have to do it for long.

_I did it for you!_

After the judge asked if she did it or not, Myoui Mina shook her head with eyes closed and head hung low, too scared to look up and face everything. And when he asked her _who_ did it, the finger pointing at Lim Nayeon at the other side of the room was trembling, _hard_.

Then it happened.

The whole room became a mess when Lim Nayeon rose from her seat, losing her calm and composed mannerism, and marched her way to where Myoui Mina was, before some security guards caught her before she could reach the latter.

The confessions of all of her crimes rolled out of her tongue so smoothly. In hysterical screams which were louder and scarier than what she had shown Sana and the team back in the office. The judge’s pleading for everyone to stay calm was ignored. The countless hammering of the wooden gavel all went to deaf ears. No one listened. Not when the suspect they thought were untouchable, went out of control by the mere presence of a girl.

There were two missing things that Sana noticed. There were no harsh words. Sana got tons of it, she still remembered. But Myoui Mina got _none_. Lim Nayeon shouted at her, yes, but without insulting her like she did to anyone else.

She was also missing that one thing Sana noticed in their last interrogation; the anger in her eyes. It was absent, as both eyes were rather teary, with emotion Sana didn’t think Lim Nayeon could ever express.

_We are partners, remember?_

The voice grew shaky. The eyes were still teary. Right before it ended Sana could’ve sworn she saw a tear escaped one of them.

_You love me too!_

Out of everyone in that room, Sana knew Myoui Mina had it the hardest. She couldn’t manage to reach her after the trial had declared finished, so she had to go through the crowd to get into the sterile area. She left Jungyeon, Jackson and the others behind. She just wanted to make sure of Myoui Mina’s safety.

After the door had closed behind her, and there were just the two of them inside the room, Sana went and hugged the girl like they had done twice before. She knew the room wasn’t soundproof and there were a lot of people outside, even the reporters if the staffs and security guards were careless enough in letting them in.

But hugging the trembling form of the girl made her dismiss all of it. It wasn’t easy for her. Nothing had been easy for her and that day was probably the hardest. And Sana knew that no one would be willing to offer the much needed emotional support for the girl but her.

Sana didn’t say anything as she closed her eyes and basked in the painful sobs. At last she had done it. At least everyone finally knew Sana was right all along.

-

It had become a habit. Rubbing the scar on her right palm.

Sana lost count of how many times she had switched the channels only to find the same news over and over again. The remote was then ignored on the table as she sat there slouched on the couch in the office, watching the repeated news. She had nothing much to do that day, ever since Chief had ordered her and the rest of the team to withdraw completely from Lim Nayeon’s case. And all of them obeyed, because their job was indeed done.

Earlier that morning he gave Sana a pat on the back with a heartfelt _thank you, Minatozaki_. He always thanked and never congratulated her. Every time she finished a complicated case, or when she got those yearly appreciative rewards, he went and thanked her. Sana liked it, honestly. Because what she was doing was basically her job, and she deserved a thank you more than anything.

She crossed her arms and sank herself even lower on that fluffy couch, staring up at the ceiling. One more case was over. There were definitely more complicated cases she had faced before but she admitted that one was pretty memorable. She couldn’t quite comprehend that it was finally over. That she, once again, saved someone who was wrongly accused. And she just needed to wait for Myoui Mina to be sentenced free.

Everything was quite peaceful, unbelievably.

The ceiling was pretty entertaining before Yoo Jungyeon came and hovered above her with a wide grin.

“Minatozaki!”

Sana winced, sitting straight as Jungyeon plopped down beside her.

“How are you today?” She asked, grabbing the remote and busied herself watching the TV.

“Umm, fine, I guess.”

“Hmm,” She could see Jungyeon’s slight frown because of the repetitive content on TV, “you’ll come to our wrap-up party, right?”

Sana turned to the older, “When?”

“Still not exactly planned. We should find a day when we’re all free together.”

“Alright. Sounds good to me.”

Closing her eyes, Sana leaned herself on Jungyeon’s side, hugging her right arm. She noticed the usual but excessive perfume smell from the older and understood right away. She used to do that too, three years prior. It reminded her of something that had been bothering her but was overshadowed by the case she was working on.

“Did you tell her?”

“What?”

“Did you tell her?” Sana still had her eyes closed, “Dahyun. That I smoked.”

“Oh.” Jungyeon let out a small chuckle, “Well, not really. She asked.”

Her eyes snapped open, “She did?”

“I told her to buy me a pack then she asked if you smoked too so I said yes.”

A frown, “I _did_ smoke, but I’ve stopped. I thought you were over that.”

Jungyeon shrugged, “We haven’t worked together for pretty long and we couldn’t meet often so, well, I don’t know, under the stress you’ve been through, who knows? Here, I still have some if you--”

Sana quickly slapped Jungyeon’s arm real hard, “Don’t you dare.”

Jungyeon laughed when Sana sulked and was back in leaning on her, hugging the arm she had slapped. Always the annoying one, Yoo Jungyeon. Sana could never erase the bitterness. It was one of the things that made her reluctant in joining Jungyeon for party occasions. She would be endlessly tempted to break her three-year streak.

“She likes you, you know.” Jungyeon then continued, “Dubu.”

Sana kept mum.

“I guess it’s obvious.”

“Yeah.” Sana tried to sound as casual as she could, “I guess so.”

“Always so excited since the day I mentioned Minatozaki Sana.” Another chuckle, “She’s indeed one curious kid, with tons of questions to her team leaders, but when it involves you, she’s uncontrollable.”

Jungyeon put the remote down on the table.

“’Is Detective Minatozaki really joining us, Sunbaenim?’, ‘When will she be here, Sunbaenim?’, ‘How does she usually work, Sunbaenim?’, ‘Do you know her favorite food, Sunbaenim?’ and many more, I can’t tell you one by one.”

The corner of Sana’s lips moved slightly upward.

“To you she might be kind of annoying, but it’s just because she’s still young and new. She can be great in the future. She’s smart and has a great sense. And dedicated too. Which is why I didn’t just choose her, but I also kept her in the team. You remember those times when our investigation was bleak, don’t you? It’s understandable that the young ones had more spirit than the older ones, but still sad, nonetheless.”

“Is that why you chose so many young ones?”

“No,” Jungyeon tilted her head, rested it on top of Sana’s, “I actually only had Dubu. The others were seniors. When the investigation was stuck, those seniors became useless, so I removed them, and took the juniors instead.”

Sana raised her eyebrows. She didn’t know about that before.

“So you basically chose Dahyun, a young junior, among senior ones?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? I mean, it’s her first field job. She’d only been working behind the desk before this.”

“I’ve already had my eyes on her since she graduated police academy. She had the highest mark, I think. She was very potential from the start but no other detective would give her a chance to do a field job because of her age and how she looks because let’s be real, she can even pass off as my niece.”

Sana smiled bitterly at that.

“And maybe if someday, a senior detective indeed gives her a job, it’ll be a simple neighborhood robbery case that’ll be finished in like, a week or something.” Jungyeon scoffed, “I think it’ll be a waste. She won’t be able to show her potential. That’s why I wanted to give her a chance to prove herself. So that even though she’s young, she won’t be questioned anymore and will get cases she can actually handle in the future.”

A slow nod was all she gave Jungyeon before both of them went quiet. She knew she could never be like Jungyeon. Everyone in the office was probably aware of Sana’s slight dislike toward the idea of working with juniors. Sana was too impatient to work with them. Her pace was quick. She didn’t like giving orders more than once. She didn’t have time to tell the young ones what to do. And Sana admitted it.

“Speaking of the case,” Jungyeon said again, pulling herself away from Sana which the latter did the same, “there’s umm… something I want to say to you.”

Sana nodded, “Okay. Go on.”

“I just… I feel like I was being unfair to you, and your team. That I didn’t take your case seriously.”

“My case?”

“Myoui Mina.” She looked down, “You were right, I didn’t care about her. So did my whole team, because how would they care, if their own team leader didn’t? I asked you to join me, and you helped me so much, Jackson and Youngjae did too, but I didn’t do the same. I didn’t even listen to you. I’m really sorry for letting you work alone all this time.”

“Jungyeon, you didn’t--”

“Even until the trial, I still refused to listen to you.” Jungyeon stared back at her, eyes softer than usual, “You had a hard time because of me. And I want to apologize for that.”

“It wasn’t-- look,” Sana paused for a moment to find some proper words, “we came from different cases in the beginning. It’s understandable that we still brought our own goals after we joined hands. I was slacking a lot in Busan case, remember? All in my head was Myoui Mina and I didn’t care about Busan case. But you didn’t scold me for that. And even offered some help to me.”

Because things like that indeed happened a lot. Sana would be lying if she said she weren’t annoyed to death, but she herself did the same, be it in purpose or not. For Jungyeon and her team, Myoui Mina wasn’t as important as what she was to Sana, and vice versa, as Sana would admit. And if Jungyeon, who Sana often claimed to be similar to Chief, could still be patient when Sana ignored her responsibility, she didn’t see the need to treat Jungyeon differently under the same occasion.

“Don’t blame yourself or feel guilty because of that. That’s the point of working together, isn’t it? We’re here to clean up each other’s shit every single day.”

Jungyeon made a face, “You need to work on that dirty mouth, Minatozaki. But yeah, I guess you’re right. Always nice to work with you, as expected.”

Sana smiled, “Real nice to work with you too. Let’s do more in the future.”

They both smiled at each other for a good two seconds before turning their heads away with a disgusted cringe.

“Okay let’s just,” Sana grabbed the remote, “watch the TV.”

“Yeah.” Jungyeon crossed her arms awkwardly, “Sure.”

As the noises from the TV filled their sudden awkward silence, Sana glanced at Jungyeon once more to find out that she mirrored the content eyes Sana had. It was hard for her to hide a smile so she let it show. One more case with Yoo Jungyeon had finished. Sana had always been true to herself that of course, she couldn’t wait for another one.

-

Sana had made up her mind.

Or so she thought as she put a stack of notes inside the empty box.

It felt bittersweet, somehow, emptying the small meeting room. Jackson and Youngjae already packed their things and brought them back to their own cubes. It was Sana’s turn that day to pick up hers before the room was cleaned completely for other use. She first took care of her belongings in Room C the day before, but she realized it wasn’t as many as the ones in the meeting room.

These days had been too peaceful, compared to the past months. The year was ending, in less than two weeks, and Sana finally remembered how it felt like, being able to sort her thoughts out and make quick decisions, although clumsy.

Indeed, she felt like she was being clumsy. Making up her mind, yes. But clumsy.

There were two important things she had thought, and figured out. Not equally important, but worth of some quiet days of thinking for her.

Jungyeon had asked, or more like reminded her some time ago, about Myoui Mina. Reminded, because of course Sana had thought of it before. Because she was too busy enjoying the rare time when she wasn’t chasing some criminals, it slipped out of her mind. She thought of Myoui Mina a lot. And when she wasn’t worried of the false accusation anymore, she actually had other things to worry about.

Like, what Myoui Mina would likely do after she was released from the penitentiary. Where she would go and stay because everyone in the team knew how her house was ruined and none was willing to fix it up. And who she would live with because she had no one else outside and was all by herself.

It bothered Sana. The girl was only nineteen. So much could happen at that age, and the whole case was the proof of it.

Jungyeon knew what she was thinking about it. She could guess her idea. And unexpectedly, agreed on that. _There is no other way_ , she said. If Sana could, and willingly would, she should do it. Jungyeon didn’t think it was a bad idea. Instead she showered her with much support, until Sana made her first clumsy decision.

Which, later on, brought her to another one, also clumsy.

After putting a bunch of paper into the same box, Sana stopped for a moment. She then turned her head to the small gift bag placed on the round table. She grasped it, and opened it to see what was inside, for the nth time that day.

Sana only intended to do some window shopping a few days ago, walking through those fancy stores with short glances here and there. She was never the type to shop a lot, but she liked it when she had time. It was near Christmas too so a lot of items were on sale, and maybe, Sana could buy one or two as a present for herself, like any other year.

Something caught her eyes that time. Far from the displayed ones by the window, Sana saw a scarf. Wrapped around a mannequin’s neck, there was a pretty green scarf. It was distinct, from those red and white dominating the store, which was why Sana could see it from outside. She didn’t stop herself from coming inside and going straight to the scarf.

Someone else crossed her mind when she said she’d buy it. Not even caring when the cashier said the price was normal, not discounted like a lot of items around her. It was as if she was on a rush. And maybe Sana admitted it was, after one employee kind of lured her by saying it was the last one and they didn’t have the same item left.

So she went home carrying a shopping bag with an expensive green scarf in it. Before she reached her place, she made a short stop to a stationery store for a cute gift bag. And after she had locked herself in her apartment she finally got back into her senses and asked herself what _the hell_ was that all about?

Sana shook her head in disbelief as she closed the gift bag again and held it with both hands. It would be the only present. Something rebellious from her side, since her mind had always been like _avoid, avoid, avoid_ , but she’d let it be that time. The first and the last. She’d make sure to keep her words later. If she could.

Looking around the meeting room, which was already tidy, Sana decided that she had done and closed the box with her belongings in it. Taking a deep breath, she then took the gift bag and exited the meeting room with rushed steps.

Funny how she’d only been to Dahyun’s cube just once, but she still remembered where it was like she went there every day. She ignored the questioning stares she subtly got and just hurried herself to reach the meant cube. She didn’t realize she was tense before she felt relaxed knowing Dahyun wasn’t there.

It was well-organized. Her desk.

There were small framed photos on the desk. Sana didn’t notice them before. Especially the one when Dahyun graduated from police academy. There were her parents by her sides, with a man who looked older than her, probably her brother. Tearing her eyes away from the photos, Sana spotted a stack of post-it peeking through the half-closed drawer.

Sana tore one and wrote on it, with a pen she found on the desk. She then pasted it on the gift bag, and putting it safely on the desk by the laptop.

She read her messy handwriting again. _Thank you for your hard work, Dahyun. Use this well._

It was enough.

Glancing at the framed photos for a split second, Sana forced herself to walk away. She knew she normally didn’t do that. She didn’t even pay attention to people around her, let alone juniors. But Sana just scoffed at those thoughts. She had got over them. Yes, it wasn’t like her. She wasn’t being her since she figured out those _questionable feelings_ but so what? She was a human too. She could be irrational. It was okay to let things loose sometimes.

Sighing, Sana pushed the meeting room’s door open. She didn’t expect to see Jackson was inside, staring at the whiteboard.

He turned around when he heard someone coming. Sana gave him a smile as she walked closer, pointing at the whiteboard.

“I was about to erase that.”

Jackson smiled back, “I guess we’re really done, yeah?”

“Mm-hmm.” Sana crossed her arms, both of them now stared at the whiteboard filled with Sana’s handwriting, “You’ve spent almost a whole year for this.”

A shrug, “Worth it, though.”

Sana nodded her head until she remembered something, “Oh, wait.”

The dark blue flannel. Sana had been using it for a pretty long time. She had washed and ironed it some days prior, after forgetting it so many times. Jackson never asked her about that too. Sana took it from where she kept it, inside her bag, and gave it to him.

“Here,” She extended her hand to him, “washed and cleaned. Sorry it took so long.”

But Jackson didn’t take it, “No. It’s yours.”

Sana frowned, “I was just borrowing it from you. Here.”

“No, you can keep it.”

“But it’s yours, Jackson. Just--”

Sana was silenced when Jackson indeed grabbed it from her, but then wrapped it around her smaller frame instead, grasping the collars with the same smile.

“I want you to keep it. So please do. It’s yours now.”

“Um, okay…” Sana said hesitantly, “if that’s what you want.”

Jackson nodded and pulled his hands back, taking a deep breath suddenly. Sana sensed an unusual awkward atmosphere, and Jackson basically confirmed it by avoiding her eyes and didn’t talk more after. Sana decided to push the nonsense thoughts away as she tiptoed and gave Jackson a big hug.

“Thank you for sticking up with me these past months. Thank you for believing in me too. Also say my thanks to Youngjae and you know I’d hug him too if it weren’t so awkward.”

Jackson chuckled, hugging her back as he rested his chin on her shoulder, “Sure. Thank you for everything too, Sana. I knew I can always count on you.”

They then pulled away, with Jackson still holding Sana’s hand.

“Come to the wrap-up party, alright? No matter how busy you are.” He said, “Remember my meat and pork promise?”

Sana’s smile became wider at that. Of course she still remembered. She also remembered that time when she was the one who suggested the date and time of the wrap-up party, matching it so she could bring the surprise no one but herself and Jungyeon knew about. And everyone eventually agreed in the end.

“I never forget.” She smirked, “But you don’t mind if I bring someone with me, do you?”

-

_Dad is going to stay with us again starting next month! And Jooyoung’s discharging in a few days!_

_Let’s buy some meal first before we get back, alright?_

It was thick. The smoke from Sana’s deep breath as two mother-daughter pairs walked right in front of her. Some others followed after, most looking excited and content in bringing their daughters, or nieces, or cousins, or maybe granddaughters, away from the penitentiary.

Sana just stayed still, looking down to the snowy ground most of the time, afraid of scaring others if they recognized Detective Minatozaki Sana there. She didn’t mean anything by showing up in that side of penitentiary where they freed former criminals. Of course she had a purpose that day, but it didn’t involve those people.

The snow made some pleasant noises when Sana tapped her foot repeatedly on the ground, getting a little impatient. One hand was inside her winter coat’s pocket, and the other was holding another winter coat she knew would be needed. There were about three more people passing by her before the one she had been waiting for appeared.

She was three staircases above Sana. Seeing how the police officer closed the huge gate after she got out, Sana could already guess how hesitating Myoui Mina was. Her footsteps were slower than the others, with her head down and a hand clutching the strap of her sling bag. Sana saw how thin her jacket was, and the girl was basically freezing.

When Myoui Mina was about to go down the staircases, she finally saw Sana.

The slight surprised expression was understandable. Sana didn’t tell her. She only told Jungyeon and no one else.

Without saying any word, Sana climbed up the staircases instead. She then grasped the sling bag from the girl, which was pretty heavy, and slung it over her own shoulder. Still without any word, Sana wrapped the winter coat she’d been holding around Myoui Mina’s shoulders. The latter was still very much confused.

Sana then extended her hand to the girl, the left one, because she wasn’t wearing gloves, and she was already used to hide the right one by that time.

“Let’s go.”

Myoui Mina’s expression was blank, “Go?”

“Home.” Sana didn’t hesitate, “With me.”

The girl’s lips parted, “D-Detective--”

Sana ignored that and just grabbed the smaller hand, pulling Myoui Mina with her, “Come on. The others are waiting.”

It was pretty much embarrassing when Yoo Jungyeon cheered and threw both hands up in the air when Sana finally returned with Myoui Mina. Sana would still thank her later, of course, for helping to lose the awkward atmosphere between the two. Jackson, who initially refused to wait outside the car because it was freezing cold, appeared with an exaggerated reaction before giving slow claps, rhymed with Jungyeon’s cheers.

Sana just hoped they would stop.

Things got worse when the juniors joined the silly two, confirming the strange stares people around were giving them. Sana was about to playfully snap at them but then she heard a small laugh, that came from none other than the girl beside her. Sana jerked her head at Myoui Mina, fascinated by the smile she’d never seen before.

Realizing the stare, Myoui Mina got shy and ducked her head. Sana just tightened her grip on the latter’s hand as they walked closer to the others.

“Hello there,” Jungyeon suddenly wrapped her arm around the youngest, stealing her away from Sana, “great to have you back. Minatozaki Sana could never shut up about it, not even once.”

Sana just shrugged. She didn’t deny that.

“Anyways, I hope you like meat and pork. We will…”

As Jungyeon dragged her to the van, Myoui Mina turned her head at Sana behind and the latter simply gave her a nod to assure her. The girl showed her another shy smile before she got inside the van first before Sana.

When Sana was about to follow, she realized something she didn’t notice before. And Dahyun just stood there in front of her, hiding half of her face in that familiar green scarf Sana had seen multiple times before.

Sana gave her a genuine smile and she didn’t miss the blush on the pale cheeks. When she heard Jackson shouted at her to come in, Sana gestured Dahyun to go first.

She then gave one last glance to the penitentiary behind her. Another thick smoke blew up into the air because of her deep breath.

Sana finally got inside the van and closed the door. And soon they started going, so did the beginning of her next journey.

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally.
> 
> It's been really nice writing this story. Thank you very much for reading, and the kudos, also the comments. Beyond my expectations and I really, really appreciate everything. Thank you, everyone :)
> 
> So I guess... see you in Detective Minatozaki's next adventure?
> 
> PS: I know there are a lot who aren't satisfied with minayeon but don't worry, I have something prepared for you :)


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